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STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF 
PHP QR ARTY CUR CE 


F. J. FOAKES-JACKSON 


By F. J. FOAKES-JACKSON 





Studies in the Life of the Early Church 


History of the Christian Church 
from the Earliest Times to A.D. 461 


The Biblical History of the Hebrews 
to the Christian Era 


A Brief Biblical History—Old Testament 
A Brief Biblical History—New Testament 


STUDIES 
IN THE LIFE OF 
THE EARLY CHURCH 


BY 


F. J. FOAKES-JACKSON 


FELLOW OF JESUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND HON. CANON OF PETERBOROUGH, 
BRIGG’S GRADUATE PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN INSTITUTIONS IN 
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK 


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GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT, 1924, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 
eee Alaa 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


PREFACE 


The author hopes that these brief sketches may be of 
some service to both teachers and students of Primitive 
Christianity; but he also addresses himself to the gen- 
eral reader who desires to know what Primitive Chris- 
tianity was, and what ideas prevailed in the infancy of 
the Church. Without some knowledge of the conditions 
of life and modes of thought of a world so remote as that 
of the Roman Empire before the days of Constantine it is 
not possible to understand what the religion of Christ 
actually was, and how it made its way among mankind. 
At the present time it is important to know the circum- 
stances under which the dogmas and institutions, still 
recognized in the Church, came into being. Many chap- 
ters have appeared in the Churchman (New York) and 
are reprinted here by the courtesy of the editors of that 
paper. The author desires to acknowledge with gratitude 
- the help he has received from his old friend the Rev. A. C. 
Jennings of England and from the Rev. F. J. Moore of 
Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 





CHAPTER 


I 
II 


Vill 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION . 

Jupaic CHRISTIANITY 

GENTILE CHRISTIANITY 

Tue DIscriPLINE OF CHRISTIANITY 
THE CHURCH AS A SYSTEM OF BELIEF 
CHRISTIANITY AND THE GNOSIS . 


THE GNOSTICS AND THE LEADING 
APOSTLES 


THE REPLY OF THE CHURCH TO GNOSTI- 
CISM . 


PoPpULAR CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 
EDUCATION IN RELIGION . 

THE CHURCH PROSCRIBED BY LAW 

THE SPIRIT oF MARTYRDOM 

THE CHURCH AND OTHER RELIGIONS 
CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER PHILOSOPHIES 
THE CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS . 

THE PRIMITIVE BisHOP 

EARLY CHRISTIAN WORSHIP . 


ScCHISMS 
Vil 


PAGE 
If 


20 
29 
39 
49 
59 


68 


78 
88 
97 
107 
118 
127 
137 
146 
T55 
166 — 
175 


Viii 


CHAPTER 


XIX 
XX 
XXI 
XXIT 
XXII 
XAIV 
XXV 


CONTENTS 


THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY . 

EARLY CHRISTIAN LEARNING . 

THE History oF EUSEBIUS OF CASAREA 
CONSTANTINE 

THE ROMAN CATACOMBS . 

THE Day or TRIUMPH 

THE EXTENT OF THE CHURCH 


INDEX 


PAGE 


184 
195 
205 
a 
225 
235 
245 
255 


STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF 
THE sBAREY CHhuR@H 





STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE 
EARLY CHURCH 


CHAPTER I 
AN INTRODUCTION 


Church History: the story of (A) an institution, or (B) of 
opinions 

The story of the Christian Church is, of course, inter- 
woven with that of the religion, but is not identical with 
it. The one is the history of an institution, the other of 
opinions. The institution was at first a small sect of 
Jews, whose existence was hardly recognised in the larger 
community of Israel with its various sects and parties. In 
the next stage it consisted of a number of small communi- 
ties in different cities, bound together by a common belief 
that Jesus was the Messiah or Christ. Then the believers 
proclaimed that they were a new race of men (genos), in 
the world but not of it, a race moreover distinct from the 
Jews. Next, by a silent process, which is practically un- 
recorded, they developed almost “‘national”’ laws, customs, 
and peculiarities which drew them into a federation of 
ecclesie or churches, generally making some larger church 
—Rome, Alexandria, Carthage, or Antioch, as a centre. 
This led to the development of the idea that there was one 
great institution, the Church Universal or Catholic, out- 
side which no Christianity was possible. Under this 
institution there grew up a form of government,’ common 
to all in its component parts, a common principle of law, 
certain recognised rules of conduct, certain documents 

II 


12 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


accepted as authoritative. There further arose a sort of 
representative system of legislative assemblies and a rec- 
ognised discipline of offenders. In the course of time 
there were disputes, partly owing to the rivalries of great 
churches, partly to the discontent of individuals, partly 
to attempts to introduce innovations, and partly to objec- 
tions to changes in the ancient order. These things belong 
to the history of all institutions. 

But suddenly a great change came to the Church. It 
is at least a partial truth that the Christians became an 
institution in order, passively at least, to resist the Roman 
empire. They fought by enduring persecution; and no 
sooner did the largest and best organised attempt to de- 
stroy Christianity prove unsuccessful, than the Empire 
summoned the Church to co-operate with it. In an in- 
credibly short time the once afflicted body passed through 
the stages of being an institution patronised by govern- 
ment to that of the only religion recognised by law, and 
the Church was soon able to claim that the human govern- 
ment, which had acknowledged its right to exist, was itself 
dependent on the Church for its authority. 


B. The Church as a repository of truth 

This is the history of the Church as an institution. The 
other side is the history of opinion. This is, of course, less 
easy to trace. Facts are safe stepping stones. Moreover, 
we can regard the Church as an institution from the out- 
side. Even the question, important as this is, whether it 
is of divine or human orxigin need not here disturb us. 
What has to be ascertained are the external facts in the 
progress of the Church, what its organisation was, what its 
Jaws were, how it was governed. This can be done by the 
historian pure and simple. But there is the other aspect, 
to interpret which demands sympathy for the spirit which 
animated the Church, as well as knowledge of the thought 


AN INTRODUCTION 13 


which influenced its development. One of the chief pur- 
poses of the Church was to conserve unchanged the truths 
which believers in Christ had received from Him and from. 
His immediate disciples, and it must be always borne in 
mind that these truths were believed to be final and un- 
changeable. It was firmly held that no new truth had 
been revealed, and that what might to us appear to be 
a novelty was merely an explanation of the original reve- 
lation. To take a single example, the word Tvias or 
Trinity does not appear in the Scriptures of the Church 
nor can it be found in any Christian document before the 
year A.D. 180. Yet it was universally believed that, from 
the day of Pentecost and onwards, the Christians had ac- 
cepted the doctrine, even though ignorant of the word in 
which it was enshrined. Whether this is the fact or not 
may be questioned by us; but was never doubted for a 
moment for many generations. To take another instance. 
Very few traces appear in the first centuries of church 
history of the intense reverence in which the Virgin 
Mother of the Lord was held. Yet those who maintain 
the necessity of paying the highest honour to Mary are 
never tired of insisting that, from the very first, she was 
considered to be the foremost of the saints, and was re- 
garded as the flower of the entire human race. Their 
opponents, on the other hand, deny to Mary the honour 
paid by Catholic theologians, because they maintain that 
in the Primitive Church it was withheld from her. But 
orthodox catholic and orthodox protestant are agreed in 
this, that the worship paid to Mary can only be justi- 
fied if, from the very first, it was, at any rate implied, in 
the faith once delivered to the saints. 


Reverence for primitive tradition 
It is important to remember this attitude of mind in 
order to understand the side of church history which deals 


14 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


with the development of beliefs. We find various different 
opinions promulgated, which were rejected and con- 
demned: but the same claim was made for these, as for 
the accepted doctrines of orthodoxy. Every heretical 
teacher declared that he was in possession of the original 
Gospel, that he interpreted the real doctrine of Jesus and 
His disciples, and that his “novelties” were nothing of the 
kind, because the rest of the Christian world were the real 
innovators. In fact no one dared promulgate any doctrine, 
except by claiming that it was either primitive, or at least 
the secret doctrine of the first teachers of the Faith. Even 
at the Reformation and afterwards the boldest innovators 
declared that they upheld the Christianity of the first age. 
This is so opposed to the modern notion that what is new 
has a presumption in its favour, that it is not easy for the 
student to adjust his mind to the universal sentiment of a 
past which is by no means remote. 


Triumph of the Church due to its organtsation and to its 
system of law 

In the development of the Church, both as an institu- 
tion and as a system of teaching, external influences played 
a great part. As it first fought, then it copied, and 
finally dominated the parts of the Empire which survived 
its triumph. It dealt similarly with the religions and phil- 
osophies which it encountered. The knowledge of the con- 
dition of the world in the days when the Church was in 
process of formation, and its dogmas were receiving def- 
inite shape, is a most important key to the situation. 
One of the most striking features of early Christianity was 
its power of organisation. This the Jewish communities 
undoubtedly possessed; but, as is now abundantly clear, 
the whole of society was permeated by clubs and asso- 
ciations, with officials, funds, and regulations recognised 
by the law. In some form or another the Christians, 


AN INTRODUCTION 1 Ms: 


although everywhere their religion was illegal, were able 
to combine. In its world organisation, the Church fol- 
lowed the Empire. Long before Constantine’s edict of 
toleration, its capitals were those of the Roman world. 
Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, Caesarea in Cappa- 
docia, were each a Christian metropolis, the authority of 
whose bishop extended over the territory which recog- 
nised the leadership of his city. It was the same with 
the jurisprudence of the Church which had a remarkable 
attraction for the legal profession, and numbered great 
lawyers among its adherents. 


Influence of the Roman world on Christian devotion and 
opinion 

On its devotional side, the influence of the world around 
was plainly felt. The first Christian churches were no 
doubt synagogues, and the worship was entirely Jewish. 
But directly they became distinctively Christian, their 
services showed traces of Gentile influence. Baptism was . 
soon transformed into a ceremony of initiation, with se- 
crets communicated only at the time of the performance 
of the rite, the Eucharist from a meal developed into a 
ceremonial union of the communicant with the Lord. 
Strive as they would, the most devoted Christians could 
not prevent education continuing to be that of the old 
world, based on the classics of antiquity. To make their 
views intelligible, it was necessary for churchmen to adopt 
the language of the philosophy of their time. Some did 
more: they adopted the dress and even the name of phil- 
osophers. Nor did most Christians isolate themselves 
from their former friends. The fact that stern teachers 
and moralists urged them to do so is a sufficient proof 
that they did not. But their own monuments, inscriptions, 
etc., show that a man could belong to the Church and not 
differ very markedly from his friends outside. It is not 


16 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


surprising that Christians were powerfully influenced by 
contemporary ideas. It is therefore absolutely necessary 
to know something about the society in the midst of which 
Christianity made its appearance. 


The “Fathers” often disappointing 

There are many other things which one ought to know, 
but it is far more important in embarking on the appar- 
ently trackless ocean of ecclesiastical history to decide 
where we want to go than to be informed what our desti- 
nation ought to be. The student has to be introduced to 
certain mysterious people of whom he has heard vaguely 
as “the Fathers” and when he meets them, he is apt to be 
disillusioned, for truly they are rather disappointing. 
Their writings are mostly controversial. They are at- 
tacking heresies which appear to us impossible or absurd, 
or they are disputing on questions which are of no interest 
to us: sometimes they are abusing one another. When 
they are dogmatic, they use terms which are not familiar 
to us, and we have almost to learn a new language; and 
when they abuse their opponents, we wonder how far 
what they say is consistent with their Christian profession. 
They are most serviceable to us when they are endeavour- 
ing to explain to the heathen what they believe; but even 
then their arguments are often unconvincing. Another 
reason why they are uninteresting to us is that they all 
belong to much the same class. Nearly all of them are 
clergy, generally bishops, and their ideas are mostly con- 
ventional. There are striking exceptions, Justin the phil- 
esopher, Tertullian the lawyer, Clement of Alexandria the 
teacher, and above all Origen; but these are not average 
Christians: they are among the best minds of their age. 


Need for information not “patristic” 
When we study Church history, we are told what these 
leaders thought and argued about. But what we want to 


AN INTRODUCTION Ay, 


know is of what kind was the religion that spread like a 
fire along the shores of the Mediterranean in the first, 
second, and third centuries. To discover this one has to 
go outside the prescribed course of patristic reading. Here 
and there it is true the Fathers throw light on the popular 
religion and practice; but, if one would know what it 
really was, it is necessary to read what has survived in 
books little recognised and at times condemned by the 
Church. Inscriptions—especially in the Catacombs— 
help us to realise something of the domestic and social 
life, and the so-called Apostolic Canons and Constitutions 
reveal a condition of affairs which—to say the least—will 
surprise those who are unfamiliar with such documents. 
A perusal of the spurious Acts of the Apostles will show 
how people craved for the miraculous, and how the most 
incredible tales were widely accepted. The adventures of 
some Apostles as they are related can only be paralleled 
in the Arabian Nights. 


Psychology of martyrdom 

The psychology of martyrdom is also something which 
we desire to understand. With persecution modern mis- 
Sionaries are still familiar. They can tell how the ap- 
proach of the storm is signalled by a sudden wave of un- 
popularity like that which heralded the persecution of 
Lyons, of Vienne. They know how the officials are often 
ready to protect them, but are forced into hostile action 
by. clamorous mobs, as when Polycarp was put to death 
after the regular games at Smyrna were concluded. They 
know how public opinion is worked upon by interested 
persons for political reasons, as it was by Nero. They 
are aware that their schemes for relieving misery are made 
the handle for charges as absurd as those of Thyesteian 
banquets and G:dipodcean mixets. But, and this is not to 
their discredit, they do not share in the extraordinary de- 


18 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


sire for martyrdom characteristic of the first age of the 
Church. They are not animated by that suicidal passion 
for death which caused the rulers of the ancient Church 
almost to discourage martyrdom. Nor do they display 
that extraordinary bitterness against those who tried to 
save their lives by compliance, which we find in the Dona- 
tist and other controversies. 

To understand the meaning of this fanaticism, the Acts 
of martyrdom and the proceedings of some ecclesiastical 
assemblies have to be read and appreciated. 


Interesting questions 

There is much else we should like to know, for example, 
what part women played in the progress of Christianity. 
That it was considerable cannot be questioned; but we 
have only here and there indications as to their functions. 
What were the chief features of a primitive Christian 
worship? This, one might expect, is a question easily 
answered; but it is not. We have to rely on scattered 
hints and generally to bear in mind that, when our in- 
formation seems precise, it is frequently late and we are 
in danger of taking for granted that the worship of the 
fourth or fifth century was similar to that of the second. 


Why is Christianity a benefit? 

But, after all, most of these questions are of secondary 
interest. There is one, however, which is of primary 
importance, namely, what good did Christianity bring to 
mankind? What is there that makes valid its claim to 
be the most vital influence that has appeared in history? 


One must go below the surface to answer this question 
Investigation will not, possibly, make the history of 
the beginnings of Christianity other than disappointing. 
The great, central figure of the Master becomes more 
shadowy as the historical problem is discerned, and, if 


AN INTRODUCTION 19 


we judge by the literature, the gracious character de- 
picted by the Synoptists does not seem to have been the 
attraction so much as the transcendent power of the 
Saviour. Yet, as a rule, the literature of the Church is 
neither better nor worse than that of the age. The New 
Testament stands out pre-eminent, and the most doubtful 
canonical book is superior to the best parts of the Apos- 
tolic Fathers. The later writers from Justin Martyr 
onward are sensible, ingenious, often learned, almost in- 
variably commonplace. Down to A.p. 450 the Christian 
community produced very few original thinkers, and still 
fewer in the centuries which followed. Marcion and Ter- 
tullian among those without, and Origen and Augustine 
among those who died in communion with the Church, are 
notable exceptions. Tertullian’s ‘Apology,’ Augustine’s 
“Confessions,” some passages of John Chrysostom, a few 
hymns of Ambrose and Prudentius, are about all the good 
literature produced during the most eventful movement 
in human thought. We must go far below the surface to 
discover the secret of the triumph of Christ’s religion. 


CHAPTER II 
JUDAIC CHRISTIANITY 


The word Judaic as here employed 

Judaic is a word used in different senses when applied 
to Christianity. It is at one time made to mean an ele- 
ment of Judaism which is incompatible with the Chris- 
tian religion, like the compulsory circumcision of Gentile 
converts, condemned by Paul, or the observance of the 
Jewish Sabbath, reprobated by Ignatius. Or it may be 
used of a legalism, supposed to be alien to the freedom 
of the Gospel; thus the whole system of an hierarchy, 
prescribed feasts and festivals, are called Judaic. Here 
Judaic is applied to Christianity in the non-controversial 
sense, meaning that Christianity was at one time a phe- 
nomenon in Judaism, and that the first believers were 
regarded as a Jewish sect. 


Jesus as a Jewish teacher 

It is an undoubted fact that Jesus, according to the 
clear testimony of the four Gospels, was a Jew. He 
opposed the uncharitable and unreasonable interpretation 
of the Law, as for example, the attempt to make the 
observance of the Sabbath an excuse for forbidding an 
act of charity. He denounced any interpretation of tra- 
dition which placed the duty of paying tithe above mercy 
and the love of God. He even declared that the Mosaic 
Law of divorce, as ordained because of the hardness of 
Israel’s heart, had to yield to a higher principle of mo- 
rality. But this did not prevent the Lord observing and 


20 


JUDAIC CHRISTIANITY 21 


enjoining obedience to the Law, and in conforming to the 
customs and religion of His people. 


The first believers observed the Law 

It is the same when we leave the Gospel for the Acts. 
The first believers were scrupulous in attendance at the 
Temple; Peter could declare that he had never eaten 
anything common or unclean (Acts x, 14); the people 
regarded the new sect with favour; even Paul is repre- 
sented as a scrupulous observer of Jewish custom and 
careful not unnecessarily to wound the religious prejudices 
of the people of Jerusalem (Acts xxi, 18-26). In his 
Epistles, it is true, he shows himself more independent 
of the older apostles than he is represented in Acts 
to have been; but throughout he is unmistakably Jewish 
in his attitude of mind. If he gives up his privileges of a 
Hebrew of the Hebrews for the sake of Christ, they are 
none the less privileges (Phil. iii, 4-8). If he admits the 
Gentile to the full participation of the Gospel, he is fully 
aware that he has taken an extreme step; that God has 
permitted it is a mystery (Eph. iii, 6). Despite the fact 
that he declares ‘“‘to the Greeks, I became a Greek,” he is 
always a Jew holding out the right hand of fellowship to 
Greeks, and he speaks to them from the higher level of a 
Jewish moralist. 


James, the Lord’s brother | 

According to tradition, James, the Lord’s brother, was 
so typical a Hebrew saint that it is conceivable that 
that he might have become even more honoured in a Jew- 
ish Christian church than Jesus Himself. His virtues, 
manifested in his asceticism, his prayerfulness, and his 
strict observance of the Law, and crowned by a martyr’s 
death just before the fall of Jerusalem, were eminently 
calculated to evoke popular admiration. That he sank 
into a secondary place, and is now known as “St. James 


22 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


the Less,” is a proof of the failure of early Judaic Chris- 
tianity. It is worth noticing that, in the Epistle which 
bears his name, the Christian meeting place is called a 
synagogue (James ii, 2). James and the family of the 
Lord soon faded into total obscurity. 


Jews and Christians maintain relations for a time 

Scattered notices in the Jewish writings indicated that 
for a time, even after the destruction of Jerusalem, there 
were amicable, if somewhat strained, relations between 
Jew and Christians. There were Christian rabbis who 
disputed with the orthodox teachers, and were sometimes 
rivals in medicine, and also in magic. The Gospels were 
to Jews somewhat in the same relation as the heretical 
apocrypha were to Catholic churchmen. That the rabbis 
had to condemn the perusal of the Gospels was a proof of 
their popularity in certain quarters. There are stories 
of Jews consulting Christian rabbis on legal points and 
even records of rabbinical decisions by Jesus Himself. 
That He should be mentioned at all is remarkable consid- 
ering how little is recorded of Hillel, of Shammai, and 
even of Gamaliel. After the fall of Jerusalem, Judaism 
seems to have been guided by liberal and moderate men. 
Johanan ben-Zaccai, the leader and almost the founder of 
the New Judaism, was a man of peace, and escaped from 
the city and the Zealots to establish the School of Jamnia. 
For a time the fanatical Israelites were quiet; and a new 
legalism, without temple or priesthood, was being silently 
constructed. 


Bar-cochba’s revolt—A kiba 

Then there burst out a revolt against the Romans 
which, if we had but a Josephus to record it, might appear 
as sanguinary as the days of Vespasian and Titus. First 
in Cyprus, then in Syria, the Jews massacred and defeated 
their enemies, and were only subdued by a supreme 


JUDAIC CHRISTIANITY 23 


military effort on the part of Rome. The rebellion pro- 
duced a general and a saint. The military leader was 
Bar-cochba, the Son of a Star, the saint was Akiba, once 
the most indifferent, afterwards the most zealous of Jews. 
It is to Akiba that we owe the minute study of Scripture 
that sees inspiration in every letter of the law. He is the 
martyr par excellence of Judaism. He endured every 
torture with surprising fortitude, and in the midst of his 
sufferings remembered that it was the hour of prayer. It 
was he who recognised in Bar-cochba the Messiah; and 
from his day Judaism finally broke with Christianity. 
Yet, even after the great war, Justin Martyr as a Chris- 
tian and Trypho the Jew dispute amicably about prophecy, 
and part with friendly hopes that they may resume their 
discussion. 


The Teaching of the Twelve Aposiles 

The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles is on the Chris- 
tian side an indication of the power of Jewish thought in 
a community of believers. It has been described as 
“a catechism, intensely Jewish.” The rules for Baptism 
are cast in a thoroughly rabbinic mould. If possible 
thoose a running stream, failing that still water will suf- 
fice. If necessary the water may be warmed. The va- 
Yidity of Baptism depends on the exact performance of 
the rite, but all circumstances are considered. This is 
good Pharisaism. The law must be observed, the ritual 
is important; but, where inconveniences occur, these may 
be modified. This we are inclined to condemn as casuis- 
try; but it is really in consonance with the wise Sabbatari- 
anism of Jesus. 


Antt-Judaism of Ignatius 

Signs of a distinct break with Judaism on the part of 
Christians appear in Ignatius. In the alleged Abgar 
correspondence and in the “‘Apology” of Aristides there 


24 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


is little anti-Judaism; but in the fervid letters of the 
martyr it is very marked. To keep the Sabbath is of the 
nature of apostasy. Christianity is here declared emphati- 
cally not to be a form of Judaism.’ This does not mean 
that the letters are late; for Paul condemns the observance 
of Sabbaths and Jewish festivals by Gentiles, and to John 
the opponents of Jesus are not the rabbis or the priest- 
hood but “the Jews.”’ Yet neither apostle goes as far as 
Ignatius; with him Judaism is the enemy. Judaising is 
becoming a sort of apostasy. The Jewish and the Chris- 
tian teachers by the middle of the second century began 
to refuse their disciples a middle way. The decision must 
be on one side or the other. 


Judaism a heresy 

Judaism became heresy when the Catholic Church in- 
sisted on the confession, not only of the Messiahship, but 
of the divinity of Jesus, whom the Jews friendly to the 
Church acknowledged as the greatest of prophets and 
their Lord, but stopped there. Thus there are found 
Gnostic heretics with markedly Jewish characteristics, 
notably the Ebionites and one sect of Nazarenes, who 
were acknowledged to hold the faith though they retained 
the ceremonial obligations of Judaism. 


The Christian hierarchy modelled on the Jewish 

The general policy of Judaism towards Christianity as 
time went on was to ignore it as much as possible; and 
even controversy died down as the two religions became 
perfectly distinct from one another. The wide dispersion 
of the Jews had, of course, no little to do with the spread 
of the Christian Church. In every place the Jewish syn- 
agogue alforded a model for a church community with 
the strange difference that whilst Judaism practically lost 
its priesthood with the fall of Jerusalem, and was able 


JUDAIC CHRISTIANITY 25 


to dispense with it, the Christians tended more and more 
to restore the counterpart of the Jewish hierarchy. 


Philo and Hellenistic Judaism 

They also did much to conserve what Judaism had lost. 
Despite its part in Stephen’s death and its hostility to 
Paul, Hellenistic Judaism must have shown itself more 
liberal toward Greek ideas than that of Palestine. It 
was permeated by Greek thought; and its consummation 
is seen in Philo. Here we have an earnest Jew, devoted 
to his religion with no sympathy for those of his country- 
men who inclined to heathenism, and at the same time a 
scholar soaked in the philosophy of the Platonic School. 
His biblical exegesis and his methods are not rabbinic 
but philosophic, and he appears more influenced by Pla- 
tonism than any New Testament writer. Earlier than 
Philo are the so-called Wisdom of Solomon, and the Greek 
translation of the Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of Sirach, 
better known as Ecclesiasticus. In these works we see that 
the Hellenistic Jews had a literature and a philosophy of 
their own; and this powerfully influenced the theology and 
ethics of nascent Christianity. Nor is this all. One of the 
most thrilling stories of Jewish patriotism, the memory of 
which appeals to every Jewish heart—that of the Macca- 
bees—has survided in two Greek versions, and there is a 
Maccabean literature including three other books. This 
is supplemented by the voluminous writings of Josephus 
—his minute description of the siege of Jerusalem, his 
recasting the history of his people in the Antiquities, 
where he endeavours to make the Old Testament narrative 
acceptable to heathen readers, and his elaborate defence 
of Judaism against Apion. Nor must we forget the apoca- 
lyptic literature, those visions of judgment of heaven and 
hell with their elaborate angelology and reconstructions 
of the new world, as well as the curious attempts to 


26 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


make the heathen of remote antiquity testify to the choice 
of Israel by the one, true God in the Szbylline Oracles. 


The Christian Church preserved the literature of Helle- 
nistic Judatsm 

All this would have perished but for the fact that 
Christianity, for various reasons, preserved the monu- 
ments of Hellenistic Judaism, which had played so large a 
part in the history of the early empire. We should never 
have known otherwise how extensive the Dispersion had 
been, or how powerful the Jews were in Alexandria and 
Rome. Herod would have been nothing but a name, the 
Hasmonean Kings would have been shadows, and learned 
men would have disputed as to how Titus captured Jerusa- 
lem, and why in the days of Claudius there were Jews in 
Rome. We should have known nothing of the hopes and 
dreams of a vast, widely spread community; in a word, 
a whole phase of Judaism—extending over centuries— 
would have disappeared but for Christian scribes. 


Judaism becomes self-centred 

The fact is, that with the fall of Jerusalem and the 
still greater disaster of the rebellion of Bar-cochba, Juda- 
ism became an entirely self-centred religion, dominated by 
the idea that the Law must be observed, and the distinc- 
tive character of the nation maintained at all costs. The 
liberal Judaism of the dispersed among the Greeks was 
gone; its spirit died, but it revived in Christianity. Philo, 
though he most probably never so much as heard of 
Christ, was in some respects almost Christian, and the 
Church preserved his works which the synagogue allowed 
to sink into oblivion. Josephus is claimed by some to 
have been at least an Ebionite Christian. The Thera- 
peute and Essenes gave the asceticism, so admired by 
the Church, an example and an impetus; but the Jews 
would have allowed both to pass into complete oblivion. 


JUDAIC CHRISTIANITY 21 


After the third century there is little, if any, Jewish lit- 
erature in Greek. If the Jews denounced their Christian 
enemies they did so in language which no one but them- 
selves could read. Even proselytising, which had been 
once eagerly pressed, was now practically abandoned in 
the long period of the isolation of Israel from the world. 
Talmudic Judaism is utterly unlike that described in Acts, 
with the synagogues crowded with proselytes and even 
Gentile hearers. 


Why Christians could not entirely break with Judaism— 
Marcton 

The Christians on their part tried to break away from 
Judaism just as the Jews did from them. The failure was 
due to several causes, mainly to the necessity of retaining 
the Old Testament. Marcion, that remarkable heretical 
teacher, was the pioneer in trying to push Paulinism to 
its logical conclusion. Paul had admitted that the Law 
was unable to save; Marcion went a step farther in de- 
claring that it was not inspired by the true God, that being 
justice without mercy and therefore imperfect justice, it 
was opposed to the teaching of Jesus. His real critical 
discernment led him to conclude that two of the three 
synoptists were Jewish in tone, and that truly Christian 
liberality and mercy were to be best found in Luke, whose 
Gospel he treated with almost the freedom of a modern 
scholar. To him the God of the Jews was an inferior 
deity, who meant well, but made mistakes through his 
rigidity. His followers were only good in a limited sense. 
But Marcion’s liberalism was saved from Gnostic laxity 
by his uncompromising insistence on a moral law which 
went to extreme lengths of ascetic practice. He admitted 
no tampering with paganism; and among his followers the 
same zeal for martyrdom was shown as by the orthodox 
believers. His was emphatically a non-Judaic Christian- 


28 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH. 


ity. His church was extensive and widespread; but, 
though it lasted for centuries and the religion reappeared 
in different forms, it could not succeed because, if Chris- 
tians were allowed to repudiate the Law entirely, they 
could not appeal to the Prophetical writings as an arsenal 
of proof of the truth of the revelation of Christ, nor to 
the Psalms as a monument of devotion. A purely Gentile 
form of Christianity in fact, could have had little chance 
of permanence. 


The Church retains parts of Judaism: and becomes the 
successor of the Disperston 

The Church profited greatly by its adherence to the 
moral teaching of the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testa- 
ment, and by skilfully adapting the Jewish polity to its 
own requirements. It is remarkable how, in every asser- 
tion of ecclesiastical authority, the appeal was made to 
the Jewish hierarchy. Every church became an Israel 
in miniature, with the bishop as Priest, the deacon as 
Levite, and the laity as the people of God. The Old 
Testament was at least as deeply studied as the New; 
and one is constantly amazed at familiarity of the Fathers 
with books which modern Christians hardly read. The 
discipline and the jurisdiction of the Syna gogue was taken 
over; the medizval Courts Christian are in a sense the 
heritace of Judaism. With the disappearance of the 
Hellenists before rabbinic discipline, the Christian 
Church took the place of the Greek Judaism of Philo, Jo- 
sephus, and the Sybil, and became in a sense the legitimate 
successor of the Diaspora. \ 


sire 


CHAPTER III 


GENTILE CHRISTIANITY 


In the New Testament Gentile Christianity was some- 
what feeble, existing chiefly on sufferance, and almost 
apologising for its existence: within a few years, perhaps 
even before the appearance of the last canonical Scrip- 
ture, it was the only possible Christianity with a future. 
In trying to discover how this came to pass, the student 
has often to work without a guide and even without a 
lamp. It is not surprising therefore that he should fall 
into mistakes. 


Did the Apostles receive a command from the Lord to go 
to the Gentiles? 

Whether our Lord ordered His disciples to go to the 
Gentiles is not clear in the Synoptic Gospels. True the 
Lord after His resurrection commanded them to make all 
the nations their disciples (Matt. xxviii, 19); and had said 
earlier that ‘‘this gospel must be preached to all the Gen- 
tiles (Mark xiii, 10). But, when He sent the Twelve to 
proclaim the kingdom, He forbade them even to go to the 
Samaritans (Matt. x, 5). It is plain from Peter’s ap- 
proach to Cornelius (Acts x) that it was once considered 


*Despite the prohibition in Matt. x, 5, against the Twelve going to 
the Gentiles and the Samaritans and the implication in Acts that it was 
a new departure to preach to Cornelius, it is difficult to believe that He 
did not share in the prophetic hope that the Gentiles should not enter 
His Church. Judaism was at this time a proselytising religion; and the 
believers would naturally desire to spread the Gospel or good tidings. 
The fact that the Gentiles came in, not as full proselytes who had to 
be circumcised, but were baptised before undergoing the rite, was really 
the innovation. 


29 


30 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


by the author of Acts an innovation to evangelise the 
Gentiles. From the Jewish standpoint, the centurion Cor- 
nelius is an admirable person, as excellent as the centurion 
in the Third Gospel who was so highly recommended by 
the Jews to the Lord (Luke vii, 5). He is a worshipper 
of the true God, prays regularly, and gives alms liberally. 
A vision tells him to send for Peter to learn the truth. 
Peter also has a vision, of a sheet let down from Heaven 
full of clean and unclean animals, and he is told by a 
heavenly voice to kill and eat. This induces him to go to 
the house of Cornelius. But though he preaches to Cor- 
nelius, he does not offer baptism, till given an unmistakable 
sign that Cornelius and his company have received the 
Holy Ghost. Peter is even then compelled to justify his 
conduct to the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem. It is 
noticeable that the faith of Cornelius does not make him 
less a Gentile; he and his companions are men uncircum- 
cised, and as such are outside the pale. The Judaism of 
Acts is more thoroughgoing than that of the Szbylline 
Oracles, which exhort the Gentiles to accept proselyte 
baptism without mentioning circumcision. The author 
of Acts evidently wishes the reader to understand that 
Peter had taken an extraordinary step in admitting Cor- 
nelius to communion; and in the next chapter it is said 
that certain evangelists from Antioch preached to the 
Greeks also, but it does not say that they accepted them 
as converts, though (Acts xi, 20-23) they are described as 
turning to the Lord, and Barnabas exhorted them to 
abide in the faith. Possibly they came to hear the new 
doctrine as they went to the addresses in the synagogue. 
Barnabas and his company, including Saul, were the first 
to admit uncircumcised Gentiles unconditionally. The 
Council of Jerusalem in Acts xv is meant to mark a further 
stage. The official Church formally admits the Gentiles 
on certain not very clear conditions, but evidently with 


GENTILE CHRISTIANITY 31 


the idea that they are making a concession to a minority 
which must be careful not to abuse its privileges. One 
of the problems of Acts is that Paul in his epistles repre- 
sents his attitude towards the first apostles as at times 
almost violently independent (Gal. ii, 6), whilst in Acts he 
is described as conciliatory, and, at Jerusalem, deferential 
to authority. So far as Acts 1s an apology, the object is 
to show that Paul was after all loyal to his ancestral reli- 
gion, and that the enmity of the Jews to him was un- 
justifiable. 


I Peter addresses the Gentiles as the new Israel 

The First Epistle of Peter seems to be addressed by a 
Jew to Gentiles. In accepting the Gospel they had given 
up their vain ancestral traditions. The women had be- 
come daughters of Sarah (I Pet. iii, 6). They were all 
part of a new Israel, a holy nation and a royal priesthood, 
as Israel is declared to be in the Old Testament (I Pet. 
li, 9-10; cf. Ex. xix, 5). But the writer evidently speaks 
as a Jewish Christian from a loftier standpoint than that 
of his disciples. In this he recalls Paul’s and every other 
New Testament writer’s assumption that the Gentiles 
were as children compared with the Jews so far as 
religion and morality were concerned. 


The first Gentile converts 

It is now necessary to consider the attitude of the 
Apostle of the Gentiles to his followers: first to determine 
what the converts from heathenism were like, and aiter- 
wards Paul’s theory in regard to their presence in the 
Church. The best introduction to Gentile Christianity is 
I Corinthians; and to Paul’s attitude the Epistles to the 
Galatians and Romans. 


I Corinthians 
The First Epistle to the Corinthians is addressed to a 
church composed mainly of Gentiles, and is full of prac- 


32 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


tical advice. There is hardly any hint of the controversy 
between Paul and his Jewish opponents; and, even when 
the question of eating meats offered to idols arises, noth- 
ing is said of wounding Jewish susceptibilities but of 
offending the ‘“‘weak brother.” Paul mentions the factions 
of Cephas, Apollos, and Christ, but he does not say that 
any of them connect directly with Judaism: they are 
merely symptoms of the inveterate propensity of a Greek 
community to split into parties, each with its particular 
watchword. The Corinthian Church cannot have been 
mainly Jewish or it would not have needed so much in- 
struction in the Epistle on the elementary principles of 
morality, nor such warnings against idolatry. Its wor- 
ship was disposed to be irregular and orgiastic, a drunken 
revel, or a meeting which became a babel of confusion 
because each desired to exhibit his spiritual gift without 
regard to the rest of the assembly (I Cor. xi, 21; xiv, 23). 
The Corinthians were more interested in the theory than 
in the principles of their newly adopted religion. They 
demanded of Paul a philosophy, when he knew they 
needed the most elementary instruction (I Cor. ili, 1-2). 
Vain, disputatious, litigious, they were ignorant of the 
rudimentary principles of the Gospel. Increased, as Paul 
says, “in all utterance and knowledge,” they had little 
conception of the laws of sexual morality. Had they been 
an entirely Jewish community they would not have needed 
the stern admonitions about bodily purity which the 
Apostle gives to a still semi-pagan community, like that of 
the Church of Corinth (I Cor. vi, 18). 


Liability to relapse 

The Epistle is of special interest as revealing the task 
of organising a church composed mainly of Gentiles. It 
is one familiar to most missionaries. The Gentile con- 
verts begin by being full of zeal, and appear to be far 


GENTILE CHRISTIANITY 33 


better Christians than those who have been for genera- 
tions under the Law. But at heart they are half pagan 
still, and relapses are extraordinarily frequent, and occa- 
sionally very serious. Paul could not have the same 
confidence in men just converted from heathenism as he 
could for those who had had a previous training in Juda- 
ism. This the Apostle evidently felt when, in the Roman 
letter, he dwells on the rejection of Israel as a great mys- 
tery, on their zeal for God, though it is not according to 
knowledge, and on his conviction that the Church cannot 
be perfected till the “fulness of the Gentiles” is complete, 
and then “all Israel shall be saved.” (Rom. x, 1 ff; xi, 26.) 


Why Paul opposed the circumcision of Gentile converts 

But Paul realised that no Gentile Church could be built 
up by making the converts into indifferent Jews. In the 
first place, circumcision was a deterrent to many promis- 
ing converts, and, in the second, those who took this ex- 
treme step would be in danger of becoming more Jewish 
than the Jews. As Matthew records it, there is a saying of 
the Lord that a proselyte of the Pharisees was a worse 
enemy to His followers than any born Jew. (Matt. xxiii, 
15.) Besides, Judaism, with its salvation by works, z.e., 
by ceremonial observances, would be far more attractive 
to the Christian convert than Christianity with its insist- 
ence on simple faith. Paul’s wisdom in perceiving this is 
more admirable to us than the arguments by which he 
supports his conclusions. He felt that to make the Gen- 
tiles into good Christians, it was necessary to prevent 
them entering into the Jewish community, and therefore 
he tells the Galatians that every man who accepts circum- 
cision, using the present participle, is a debtor to keep the 
whole law (Gal. v, 2. 3). This means that he loses all 
the benefit which those who have faith in Jesus obtain, or 
—to use Paul’s own words—is “fallen from grace”; 


34 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


and, as no man can keep the whole Law, he loses the sal- 
vation promised in the Gospel. In this sense Paul is the 
real founder, so far as we know, of Gentile Christianity, 
that is of a church to which a Jew might belong, but not 
the Gentile, if he submitted to the rite of circumcision. 
As time went on these Gentile communities entirely out- 
numbered the Jewish, and Christianity became essentially 
a non-Jewish worship of the God of the Old Testament, 
revealed in Christ. 


Attraction of Christianity (a) to Jews—a deliverance 

The attraction which made a Greek accept the Gospel 
did not ordinarily make the Jew do so. Paul hit the 
mark exactly when he said, ““The Jews seek a sign and 
the Greeks seek after wisdom.” The people, trained in 
the old dispensation, were always expecting a supernatural 
deliverance, not so much of individuals as of the nation. 
This is what made them fight against Rome with such 
desperate fanaticism, and refuse to yield when their cause 
was hopeless. At the last moment they felt that some- 
thing would happen—like the tenth plague which deliv- 
ered their ancestors. The enemy would be smitten by 
God and they would go free. In accepting Jesus as 
Messiah, they expected in Him an immediate deliverer. 
His resurrection was a sign, a sure proof that He would 
come in glory as the judge and vindicator of the Israel 
of God. Thus eschatology, or the looking for a final 
catastrophe was characteristic of that side of Judaism 
which was most disposed to Christianity, and all believers, 
including Paul, were looking forward to the great de- 
liverance, when Jesus should come in glory to save the 
elect. 


(6) To Gentiles—personal salvation 
But the Greek had been brought up amid no Messianic 
hopes; he was also little convinced by the miraculous. 


GENTILE CHRISTIANITY 35 


Signs did not appeal to him; and he had no national re- 
ligious hopes.’ What he wanted was personal salvation 
by enlightenment. He desired that his nature should 
undergo a change, that he as an individual should become 
immortal and be transformed into another man by a 
divine spirit. Moreover he sought in Jesus not a Messiah 
or national deliverer, but a Lord, to whose service he 
might devote himself and in whose nature he might hope 
to partake. These ideas he had been accustomed to be- 
fore he became a Christian, and his desires had undergone 
no change. He found in the two ceremonies instituted 
by Jesus just what he needed. Baptism gave him the 
change of nature he desired. By it he became a new 
man, changed by the divine Spirit, assured of immor- 
tality. In the Lord’s Supper he found a mystical union 
with the Master whose servant he became. Thus Gentile 
Christianity became more and more sacramental in its 
character and was organised accordingly. That there 
was ever a Gentile co-existent with a Jewish church is 
possible, but cannot be proved; but, as the Christianity 
which predominated was Gentile, it is allowable to imagine 
that a Jewish-Christian community would have been very 
like a synagogue with its board of elders, its local court, 
its reading of the Law and the Prophets and its disputa- 
tions on legal points: Baptism would certainly be prac- 
tised and the Eucharistic Service would have partaken of 
the character of a meal. A Gentile Church would have 
its rapidly developing hierarchy, its president who repre- 
sented it to the outside, his assistants, his council. Bap- 
tism and the Eucharist would tend to become more sacra- 
mental, in the sense of conferring spiritual power and 
nourishment, the ceremonies would assume a character 
of their own, possibly influenced by the Mysteries into 
which some of the members had, doubtless before their 
conversion, been initiated. , 


36 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Low morality of the Roman world accounts for laxity of 
some Gentile converts 

All this is hypothetical, as is also the fascinating task 
of imagining how churches of men and women were estab- 
lished without the background of the moral training of 
Judaism. The difficulty of the task is frequently ignored, 
but it is a key to a great deal of early Christian literature, 
and an explanation of not a few reproaches which are 
unjustly cast upon the first Christians. The First Epistle 
to the Corinthians is an important clue. Here we have 
an almost private letter to a Gentile community only a 
few years, perhaps not many months, old. Truly Paul’s 
converts were not grown men but babes in Christ. The 
Apostle has to give them a form of discipline, he has to 
create a healthy public opinion, he has to restrain ex- 
cesses and curb disorders. He has to provide against 
gross immorality. In his other letters, Paul is always in 
fear of apostasy. And his experiences cannot have been 
unique: every missionary found it the same. That primi- 
tive Christian morality was at times unsatisfactory is not 
surprising. The moral condition of the world in the early 
days of the empire was on the whole low, not, it is true, 
as bad as satirists and stern censors depicted it, but cer- 
tainly not what we are sometimes taught to believe it was 
by admirers of its best philosophic teachers. The Chris- 
tian records are great helps to the understanding of the 
society of the time because they deal partly with the 
moral reformation at which the Church aimed. The 
councils prescribe penalties for different offences; and we 
learn that, if a lady kills her maid in a passion, it is by 
no means the greatest offence she can commit. Men of 
the highest character and probity, St. Cyprian for exam- 
ple, address fellow bishops with compliments and praise 
for their virtue; but, when a difference on some point 
arises, these venerable and honoured brethren are freely 


GENTILE CHRISTIANITY 37 


charged with frauds, breaches of trust, and embezzlement 
of the money of widows and orphans. ‘Tertullian’s ex- 
aggerated severity, his uncharitable legalism, and fierce 
invective, is due in part to his horror at the very thinly 
veiled heathenism of the Christianity of his age. The 
Catacombs at Rome testify to the fact that the majority 
of the believers were by no means the enthusiastic puri- 
tans they sometimes are to our Imagination. The decora- 
tions of the resting places of the dead are often those of 
the house of an ordinary Roman. Inscriptions, for ex- 
ample, record successes on the race course by a charioteer. 
The real problem of the Church was how to restrain with- 
out repelling these more or less half-hearted adherents. 
The first book of the so-called Apostolic Constitutions, 
though in its present form it may be comparatively late, 
throws light on what was doubtless an early phase of 
society. A description is given of what the lay people 
ought to be, and certainly the standard is not high. Men 
are earnestly warned against excess in apparel, especially 
in order to attract the opposite sex. It is more seemly 
that they should grow beards and don the pallium of the 
philosopher. The women are chiefly admonished to keep 
away from the public baths, where the sexes mingled 
apparently in complete nudity. When they bathed, it is 
recommended that a time should be chosen when ‘there 
were few present. 


Where the Church succeeded 

Where the Church really succeeded with its Gentile 
converts was in insisting on a much higher standard of 
sexual relations than had ever been dreamed of; and in- 
deed this was so strenuously insisted upon as to result in 
excesses which discouraged even matrimony, and com- 
pelled the authorities to condemn the extreme rigorism of 
Montanism, Marcionism, and similar movements. Un- 


38 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


compromising Christianity became more and more in- 
clined to asceticism which culminated in almost insane 
panegyrics of the virgin life. It made the men and 
women who came under its influence materially better 
than the society in which they lived; and this was ac- 
knowledged by the heathen themselves. It certainly de- 
livered many from the terrors of superstition which tor- 
mented the pagan world, the constant fear of demonic 
influence, the belief that men were under inexorable 
destiny and could never escape the miseries in store for 
them. It did much to alleviate the condition of the slave 
by giving him new motives for self-respect as a free man 
in Christ. It encouraged serenity of temper and made 
cheerfulness a positive virtue. Above all it made its con- 
verts not only charitable in giving to the poor, but in 
actually alleviating distress, and the courage and self- 
devotion of Christians in times of pestilence was conspicu- 
ous. Thus to transform the ingrained selfishness of pa- 
ganism was indeed a miracle. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE DISCIPLINE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Theory of Baptism 

It is interesting to observe in the New Testament the 
conflict between theory and practice in the Christian 
Church. To the great teachers the Gospel meant liberty 
and salvation for all. The domination of the Law was 
at an end and through faith in Christ all were free. 
Moreover all who were His had already won salvation. 
The life to come had begun on this earth so far as they 
were concerned; for they were dead to sin and alive to 
righteousness (Rom. vi, 11). They were kept by the 
power of God from Satan and sinned no more, and the 
Wicked One touched them not (I John v, 18). Baptism 
meant burial and resurrection to the new life of Christ 
URonm..v1,4>-Colii; 12). 


Practical difficulties demanded a revision. Disctpline 
indispensable 

This theory, however, was not confirmed by experience. 
Baptised Christians sinned at times openly and griev- 
ously and some made their liberty ‘‘a cloak for malicious- 
ness” (I Pet. ii, 16). There were grave scandals at 
Corinth and elsewhere; and it became evident that there 
must be some sort of discipline. We find Paul insisting 
strongly on moral duties and the obligations of society 
almost in the same breath as he proclaims that law is the 
revelation of sin, and that “there is no condemnation to 
those in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but 

39 


40 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


after the spirit” (Rom. viii, 1).1 A Christian ethical 
system had for his Gentile converts to take the place of 
the Jewish. In theory they had entered upon a liberty 
for which they were in fact unfitted. The Church of 
Corinth is ordered to assemble, take cognisance, and 
punish an offender in order that he may be saved “in the 
day of the Lord,” by the discipline implied in his being 
delivered over to Satan, whatever this may mean (I Cor. 
v, 5). It is the same with John. Not only is it 
admitted that believers may sin but a distinction is made 
between sins “unto death” and “those not unto death.” 
(I John v, 16-17.) 


New Testament the basis of the moral Law of the Church 

In this way the New Testament came to contain not 
merely exhortations to live in the new spirit of liberty 
and love, but injunctions of a positive character which 
form the basis of the moral law of the Church. Jesus is 
not presented as a legislator, but He lays down a very 
definite law in the matter of divorce. So severe is He in 
regard to the obligation of the marriage bond, that His 
disciples are amazed at the positiveness of His command.? 
Both the Petrine and the Pauline Epistles insist on the 
necessity of all Christians yielding obedience to the es- 
tablished government; and in this they follow the teach- 
ing of the Gospel (Rom. xiii, 1 ff; I Peter 1, 13). The 
family relations, the duties of husbands and wives, parents 
and children, masters and slaves, are ordered to be ob- 
served. In his earliest letter to the Church of Thessa- 
lonica, possibly only a few weeks after its foundation, 
Paul enjoins obedience to the rulers of the new Christian 
community, and seems determined to prevent the scandal 


*The text is the received one. The words “who walk,” ad fin., are 
not the best manuscripts. 


* Matt. xix, 10. “If the case of a man be so with his wife it is good 
not to marry.” 


THE DISCIPLINE OF CHRISTIANITY 41 


of pious idlers living on the charity of the faithful. A 
Christian must work if he would eat. (II Thess. iii, ro.) 
The Epistles attributed to Peter and James are manuals 
of Christian ethics, based to a great extent on the Wisdom 
literature—both Hebrew and Greek—of the Old Testa- 
ment. The Pastoral Epistles are, whether the work of 
Paul or not, the basis of the Canon Law of the Church, 
as it is recognised in the later literature of the books of 
Church order. 


» 


Attraction of the Christian community 

The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles and the Epistle 
of Barnabas distinguished between the Two Ways, the 
Christian of Life, and the Heathen of Death. In the 
Teaching, the Christian community is warned against im- 
postors who profess to be apostles or prophets; and pro- 
vision is made for assuring that it shall be simple and 
industrious. There is a saying of the Lord’s in response 
to Peter’s question, ‘‘Behold we have left all—what shall 
we have?” that His followers would find, “fathers and 
mothers, efc., with persecution.” This was fulfilled in 
the Church. Those who entered it found a community 
bound together by the closest ties of affection. The mu- 
tual love of Christians won the admiration of the outside 
world. To be a Christian meant the enjoyment of many 
advantages. The brethren cared for one another in sick- 
ness and poverty, the aged were provided for, employment 
was found for those who had abandoned their callings 
from religious scruples. The days of persecution drew 
the faithful very close together. Thus apart from the 
great spiritual benefits offered by the Church, there were 
other inducements to remain within the pale. To be 
driven out of a society so affectionate, so tenderly com- 


42 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


passionate, was dreaded by all who appreciated its bene- 
fits. "Therefore the Christian body preserved a power of 
discipline. 


Expulsion the penalty of disobedience to the moral law 

Expulsion was in truth a serious penalty. Outside the 
Church there was no hope of salvation, and the offender 
lost the support of those who had been his devoted friends. 
To be as “the heathen and the publican” to his former 
colleague was terrible indeed, involving as it did temporal 
deprivation, and loss of future salvation. In this way 
order was effectually maintained; for it was no easy thing 
to regain the privileges lost by misconduct. This there- 
fore was the basis of the whole disciplinary system of the 
Church. To the heathen the door was always open, to 
those under instruction there was a chance for penitence; 
but once baptism had been given the fact that a man had 
proved unworthy of his profession was fatal. To a fully 
accepted Christian apostasy meant final exclusion. The 
absolute purity of the Church was of more importance 
than mercy to the sinner, and it must be remembered that 
expulsion from the Church in one place meant loss of 
Christian privileges everywhere, because it was impossible 
to be recognised without the recommendation of the 
Church of which one was a member. At an early date it 
appears that the organisation of the Christian world com- 
munity was efficient. 


The Church an army. Desertion unpardonable 

The Church early regarded itself as an army at war 
with the world, and its members soldiers. Military 
phraseology was soon adopted: the words militia, statio, 
sacramentum were adopted by the Christians. A persecu- 
tion meant a campaign. To deny Christ was like desert- 
ing in the face of the enemy. Apostasy was consequently 


THE DISCIPLINE OF CHRISTIANITY 43 


the greatest of sins. Next came murder and fornication, 
and these were so closely connected with apostasy that to 
be guilty of them was to become involved in the sin of 
formally rejecting Christ. Thus the Christian was unable 
to join in much of the life around for fear of being in- 
volved in these sins. He could not be a magistrate be- 
cause he might have to recognise the state religion; at- 
tendance at the games, especially if there were gladiators, 
made him a murderer; theatrical displays encouraged for- 
nication, both games and theatres were idolatrous. No 
Christian might engage in any trade which encouraged 
idolatry. But the stricter the law, the more exceptions 
were allowed. A distinction of guilt was admitted. Thus 
a man might accept an office which involved idolatry, and 
escape the full penalty of apostasy by appointing a deputy 
to act for him and so on. Of secret sins the Church does 
not appear to have taken cognisance, nor does it appear 
that till the days of monasticism the sins of the heart were 
classified and discussed. The seven deadly sins, for ex- 
ample, are now, not simple acts, but passions leading to 
sins. These did not come under the notice of the primi- 
tive disciplinarian. 


One repentance after Baptism allowed 

That penance could atone for post-baptismal sin was 
at first unknown. Baptism was regarded as a great act 
of repentance which resulted in free and full forgiveness 
of all sins. All who entered the Church were saved; 
unless they deliberately returned to the state from which 
they had been delivered. That anyone should do so was 
a matter for sorrow and astonishment. But John had said 
there is a sin unto death; the Epistle to the Hebrews had 
declared that some could not be renewed unto repentance 
(Heb. vi, 4-6); and even Christ had spoken of blasphemy 
against the Holy Spirit for which there is no forgiveness 


44 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


in this world or the world to come (Matt. xii, 32; Mk. 
iii, 29). It was a fundamental principle that baptism 
could never be repeated. Could there, therefore, be a 
repetition of the repentance which baptism demanded? 


The “Shepherd” of Hermas 

The question is discussed in the series of visions known 
as the Shepherd of Hermas. WHermas was the brother of 
Pope Pius. He had been a slave and was at the time of 
his vision a small tradesman in Rome. His wife and 
family gave him some trouble; apparently he had not 
ruled his household well. Though famous for his chaste 
life, he reproached himself with having momentarily in- 
dulged in impure thoughts and his sensitive conscience 
accused him of certain dishonesty in the conduct of his 
business. Among those whom he saw in his vision was the 
angel of repentance. He was assured by him that God in 
His mercy would grant one—but only one—chance more 
to those who sinned after baptism: in other words that the 
grace of baptism could be renewed once. In this way 
penance became a kind of third sacrament. It is not 
specified by Hermas what sort of sins could be remitted: 
probably apostasy could not, but, whether the one repent- 
ance was allowed to people whose conscience was troubled 
and felt that they had lost the purity which they had 
gained at baptism, or whether it was to be given to offend- 
ers whose conduct had caused grave scandal, must remain 
in doubt. 


Acts of Penance 

Nothing is said about the performance of penance or 
of the authority by which it was inflicted. Paul had ad- 
vised the Corinthians to hold a meeting of the church and 
to deliver the offenders over to Satan (I Cor. v, 5). But, 
later, the bishop, not the congregation, was afterwards 


THE DISCIPLINE OF CHRISTIANITY 45 


the judge. The difficulty always is that in depicting 
Church life the documents are, as a rule, late, and it is 
left to conjecture to decide how far they can be trusted 
to describe more ancient practices. It is not known 
when repentance began to be merited by prescribed acts 
of penance, or when formal acts of readmission to com- 
munion were introduced. The necessities of an age of 
persecution seem to have made the bishop practically the 
sole judge of each community as may be seen from the 
fact that Ignatius and Cyprian, the two most strenuous 
upholders of episcopal authority, were both martyrs. 


The bishop the head of the Christian army 

Persecution was war, and as in all war the need of a 
single mind to direct operation is obvious, and it must 
not be forgotten that every bishop had been solemnly 
elected or at least formally accepted by his flock as wor- 
thy of their confidence. He was literally the general of a 
Christian army which to succeed must be disciplined and 
obedient to orders. To us it may appear strange that the 
keynotes of letters, written by a man on his way to death, 
should be “Obey the bishop,” do nothing without him. 
We are disposed to wonder at anyone being so anxious to 
maintain the dignity of his office when he had only a few 
days to live. But on consideration, the zeal of the 
Ignatius letters for episcopacy cannot reasonably be used 
to disparage the character of the martyr, as though he 
regarded the faith for which he was anxious to die as 
centred in an ecclesiastical organisation. Nor can the 
language employed furnish an argument against the genu- 
ineness of the letters. To save the Church Christians 
must maintain a united front and this could not be done 
unless they remained in communion with one another, and 
this could only be by rigid obedience to their chosen au- 
thorities. It is the same under very different circum- 


46 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


stances with Cyprian. Persecution was causing division 
which could only be healed by recognising the bishop’s 
right to lead. Hence the bishop is to Ignatius in the place 
of the Lord, and to Cyprian he is the high priest. It ap- 
pears that the chief object of what discipline there was in 
the earliest Church was to keep it free from reproach and 
to guide it in days of persecution. This would account for 
much of the primitive severity, the unwillingness to allow 
sinners who had disgraced the Church pardon under any 
term. 


Heretics a different class of offenders 

But there were other offenders whose turpitude was not 
moral, but none the less serious. The function of the 
Church was to keep the faith pure and uncorrupted. The 
bishop was considered the custodian of the tradition of 
his Church—often he alone was allowed to preach. He 
was bound carefully to prevent the introduction of any 
new doctrine and to cut off any false teacher from com- 
munion with the Church. He was expected to warn other 
bishops of the appearance of a false teacher so that they 
might be on their guard. Thus according to one version 
the heretic Marcion was expelled from his church of 
Sinope and came to Rome, where he sought recognition in 
vain. The Montanists seem to have been favourably re- 
ceived by Victor of Rome, till Praxeas came from Asia 
and explained that their doctrines had been condemned by 
the bishop. Heretics seem to have been received back on 
renouncing their erroneous opinion. The great question 
in the third century was whether the baptism they had 
received outside the Church was valid. They naturally 
hoped that it would be pronounced invalid for then they 
could be properly baptised and receive all the benefit of 
the salvation which baptism ensured. Cyprian and his 
friends held that no sacrament outside the Church was 


THE DISCIPLINE OF CHRISTIANITY 47 


valid. The Roman Pope Stephen took the view that all 
baptism in the name of the Trinity must be acknowledged. 
To accuse Cyprian of lack of charity in this matter as 
though he resembled a catholic who denied the validity of 
the acts of a protestant minister is to mistake the entire 
situation. It was no question of courtesy to a rival 
Church. Cyprian in this instance was for lenity in giving 
the penitent heretic the chance of a pardon of sin, which 
neither he nor the Christian authorities believed to have 
been valid outside the Church. Both Pope Stephen and 
Cyprian would have agreed that Extra ecclestam nulla 
salus. 


Education as discipline 

One more species of discipline deserves our attention, 
that of education. The humblest Christian had to be a 
theologian in so far that he must know the cause for which — 
he might be called upon to die. At first, as we see in the 
New Testament, the convert was baptised directly he 
confessed Jesus. Gradually a system of instruction was 
introduced and the candidate only reached the full initia- 
tion of baptism after careful preparation as a catechumen. 
He was gradually introduced to the principles of the faith. 
His studies were in Christian morality and the Old Testa- 
ment; he was allowed to attend part of the service but 
not the celebration of the Eucharist. The more mysteri- 
ous doctrines were withheld. Only just before baptism 
was the formula of the rite, the name of the Trinity re- 
vealed. The course varied greatly; for the simple it was 
easy, but the educated, notably at Alexandria, were 
trained by the great masters of the Catechetical School. 
Only the baptised however were allowed a full knowledge 
of the doctrine of the Church. The Creed was for the 
initiated alone. 

Obscure as is the subject of primitive discipline, the 


48 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Church it may certainly be said, kept its members organ- 
ised and trained them in the work which they had to do; 
so thoroughly that it was able to withstand all the calami- 
ties of the early persecutions and the trials and disasters 
of the empire after the days of persecution had long 
ceased. The Church saved the civilisation of western 
Europe by becoming one body, whose members had been 
trained both to enforce and to obey its laws. 


CHAPTER V 
THE CHURCH AS A SYSTEM OF BELIEF 


First preaching of Jesus as the Risen Lord 

The idea that Christianity was originally a simple reli- 
gion full of amiability and benevolence, and lacking in 
definiteness and severity, is dissipated upon examination 
of the earliest records. What these are it is not easy to 
determine. Yet it is safe to say that the most primitive 
form of Christian teaching is not the record of the works 
and words of the Founder in the form in which we have 
received them. It is a remarkable testimony to the his- 
torical instinct of the author of the Third Gospel and 
Acts that the earliest preaching of Jesus after the Resur- 
rection in Acts is quite different from what might be ex- 
pected from the perusal of the Gospel. The Jesus of this 
Gospel, because of His humanity, is ever attractive—even 
more than in the two other Synoptists. His sayings have 
a naturalness and charm which are all His own; even His 
miracles are wrought in characteristic fashion. But in 
Acts the speeches about Jesus are formal and almost 
theological; and had we this book alone we could never 
have imagined the Jesus of Luke and the Synoptists.1 
Despite this it cannot be doubted that Luke and Acts are 
companion treatises by the same hand; and it would ap- 


*It is noteworthy that in the Acts or in the Epistles hardly any stress 
is laid on the ministry, miracles, words, or acts of Jesus. The 
preaching is the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and their 
dogmatic value. It is the same with the Christian creeds which go 
straight from the Birth to the Passion. The exceptions to this in the 
New Testament are Acts x, 38; Acts xx, 35; II Cor. x, 1, and the 
Epistle of James. 


49 


50 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


pear that, though the authorship were the same, the 
sources were different. The question being which is the 
older, the portrait of Jesus on earth or the earliest preach- 
ing of Him as Messiah. It seems more probable that 
those who witnessed the triumph of Jesus over death by 
the Resurrection should at first be more impressed with 
the wonder of His Messiahship being thus miraculously 
established, than inclined to reminiscence of His words 
and acts during the ministry. ‘‘The Lord is risen indeed,” 
and is proclaimed the Christ of God must have been their 
first idea, and their earliest message. And thus in the 
Church the divine aspect of the Master preceded the 
human. 


Little early interest in the human side of Christ 

Christianity, as the word implies, is centred in Jesus as 
the Christ; and His disciples accepted and gloried in the 
name of Christian in this sense. Yet, as Jews, they were 
strongly convinced of the unity of God; and, as the Epis- 
tle of James shows, their creed was virtually expressed, 
the belief that God is one. (James ii, 19.) At the same 
time they had but little apparent interest in the human 
side of the ministry of Jesus, to which there is no allusion 
in Acts save in Chapter x, in which He is spoken of as a 
benefactor to the human race (Euergetit) who went 
about doing good. In the letters of Paul, the earliest 
writings, it is much the same. Christ to the most 
primitive age of the Church is the expected Deliverer of 
Israel, the Saviour and Judge, who was to come in glory 
from His place in heaven, where Stephen saw Him stand- 
ing at the right hand of God. The fact that the Synoptic 
picture of Jesus on earth should have been preserved is 
truly remarkable, especially when it is considered how 
little impression it made in the Christian literature of the 
first centuries. 


THE CHURCH AS A SYSTEM OF BELIEF 31 


Christ never represented in the New Testament as no 
more than man 

In the Pauline Epistles Christ is presented in a three- 
fold aspect. In Thessalonians and I Corinthians xv He 
is the coming Judge, who will raise the dead and save His 
own people. In Galatians, Romans, and II Corinthians 
He is the Saviour of all who have faith in Him, and re- 
lieves those He has saved from the burthen of the Law. 
In the late Epistles He is above all the heavenly powers, 
the first born of all creation, by whom God made the 
worlds. It is much the same in the Epistle to the He- 
brews. By the end of the Apostolic Age in the Fourth 
Gospel Jesus becomes the Word of God, Who is God, and 
the only means by which God can be known. To have 
seen Him is to have seen the Father. This is the basis of 
all subsequent Christian theology. The Fourth Gospel is 
the logical outcome of the first preaching about Jesus in 
Acts, and the main theme of the Gospel according to Mark 
is that He is the expected Messiah and Son of God. Al- 
though, therefore, the first preaching of Jesus as the Christ 
in no way conflicted with Jewish monotheism, neverthe- 
less there is no sign of His being regarded after the 
Resurrection as a purely human figure, a normal man, 
only distinguished from other prophets by being more 
richly endowed with the Spirit of God. 


Difference of meaning of the word “God” to a Jew and a 
Gentile 

The Gentile believer was unhampered by the Jewish 
monotheistic Creed, which refused the name of God to 
any but the Almighty. To him there was nothing abnor- 
mal in a man becoming a God, or in his becoming one 
himself. Indeed the word was used, as it is by us, in two 
different senses, and this is the great difficulty in discuss- 


52 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


ing the Divinity of Jesus. Two people may agree in ad- 
mitting that He is God, and yet mean something totally 
different, according as whether they use the word in what 
may be called its Jewish, or its Gentile sense. This will 
constantly meet the student of the early Christology of 
the Church, and it is the same to the present day. The 
question ‘“‘Was Jesus Christ regarded as God?” can be 
answered without hesitation in the affirmative. To the 
more important one “In what sense was He so regarded?” 
it is impossible to reply without detailed explanation. The 
three aspects of Christian speculation may be described 
as Theology, Christology, and Soteriology. By Theology 
is meant the knowledge of God, and of all that is proper 
to divinity. Christology deals with the relation of Jesus 
Christ both to God and man. Soteriology is concerned 
with man’s relation to God, and with the problem of how 
he can be reconciled to the Maker, and be “‘saved” in this 
world and the world to come, or in both. 


“God” as conceived in Pagan and Jewtsh thought 

To the pagan, the philosopher, and the Jew God was 
conceived in different aspects. To the pagan ‘‘God” meant 
Divinity much as ‘““Man” means Humanity. As humanity 
is manifested in many men, so divinity is revealed in many 
gods; and as there are good and bad men, so are there 
good and bad gods. ‘This finds expression in polytheism. 
To the philosopher God is an abstraction; His nature may 
be shared by many, or it may be unique. But it is different 
from anything man can conceive. But it is something 
which cannot be expressed in terms. It is the Unknown, 
belonging neither to time nor space. To the Jew God is 
essentially One; His chief attributes are power and good- 
ness, He has therefore both attributes and personality. 
He is unlike man, because of His perfection, or infinite 


THE CHURCH AS A SYSTEM OF BELIEF 53 


superiority; but can be thought of in human terms; He 
can be angry or pleased; He can be appeased, but He can 
never err. 


Jewish thinkers compelled to borrow from Gentile 
philosophy 

These theories about God are far from being mutually 
exclusive, and can be held simultaneously. Even the Jew 
was often, unconsciously it may be, a polytheist, only he 
termed the spiritual beings, whom he feared if he did not 
worship, angels or demons. Jewish philosophy tended also 
to depersonalise God and regard Him as an abstraction, 
unknowable by man and mediated by some secondary 
agency, His Wisdom or His Word. The philosopher 
might speculate about God as the Idea of Ideas, but in his 
piety he was anthropomorphic, and in his superstition 
polytheistic. It was much the same with the early be- 
lievers. As regards God, and the teaching of Jesus, Paul, 
and John was not speculative, but eminently practical. 
They assumed that the God whom Israel had long served 
had made known His will; and the chief feature of their 
theology seems to have been that God desired to be in per- 
sonal relationship, not only to Israel, but to all who served 
Him. Jesus certainly did not proclaim the Fatherhood of 
God as a new revelation. The idea was familiar to all 
His hearers—but He vitalised it as no other teacher had 
hitherto done. The distinctive Christian doctrine about 
God was that He was no abstraction: that He could be ap- 
proached, that He possessed the human attributes of love, 
justice, compassion, etc.,—all this was Jewish—but in 
addition that He could only be known through His Word 
or Spirit, in other words through His Son Jesus Christ. 
None the less, when the Christian was forced into specu- 


54 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


lation he was compelled to adopt the language and even 
the theories of contemporary philosophy whether Jewish 
or heathen. 


Development of Christology 

The practical piety as well as the philosophy of the 
Church led to a Christology, or doctrine of the person of 
Jesus, and of His relation to God. But the Christians did 
not have recourse to philosophy to develop a system of 
thought, but to explain the conclusion to which their piety 
had led them. The position of the early Christian was 
this: If he were a Jew, he had been trained to believe 
that the essential of true religion was to worship one God; 
if he had been converted as a Gentile, he had learned that 
at all costs he must avoid man worship in any form. He 
must choose death rather than acknowledge Cesar to be 
a god. But the passionate love and firm trust in Jesus 
made all His followers desire to worship Him, and they 
were taught that in time of persecution they must, on the 
one hand, refuse to sacrifice to the genius of the emperor, 
and on the other, never blaspheme Christ. As has been 
indicated, they paid little attention to the human life of 
Jesus: their real interest in Him was as the Son of God, 
their Saviour, and the coming Judge of the world. True 
they rejected the Gnostic teaching that the Son of God 
had not come in the flesh but was a mere phantom 
(docetism); but the importance of the fact was due to 
their belief that Jesus was the Saviour, not only of the 
immortal spirit, but also of the flesh; and if he did not 
come in a human body, how could our bodies rise to 
immortality through Him? The divinity of Christ there- 
fore was from the earliest days an all important doctrine. 
But how was this to be interpreted and the Unity of God 
maintained? 


THE CHURCH AS A SYSTEM OF BELIEF 55 


How Jesus came to be regarded as the Word 

The Alexandrian Jews had partly provided an answer. 
To save the spiritual conception of God, and, at the same 
time, to conserve His personal relationship to man and 
creation in general, they had developed the conception 
of His wisdom or Word, which they had practically per- 
sonified. Christian piety identified this with their Master. 
God by His wisdom made the world, this wisdom is His 
Word (Logos = speech or reason). Ever since time was, 
the Word of God has been in operation. He it is who 
spake to the prophets of old. He also taught the Gentiles 
whatever in their philosophy is true. All the wisdom 
which was in the world whether manifested in the human 
mind or in the orderly movements of the planets and 
throughout the universe was due to the divine Word. 
Once the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel declared that 
this Word was made flesh and dwelt among us in the only 
begotten of the Father, and that this was Jesus Christ, 
the basis of Christology was laid on firm foundation. 
Jesus was to His followers the eternal pre-existent Word. 
It is doubtful if the Synoptic portrait of Him could ever 
have been made, when this was fully realised. For a long 
time, however, the Christology was crude and at times 
contradictory, and it took many generations to bring it 
into severe logical form. 


Free will and determinism 

But how did Christ save man? This is the problem 
of soteriology. It is a strange fact that though the teach- 
ing of Paul is frankly predestinarian, and that this is im- 
plied in some of the words of Jesus Himself, early Chris- 
tianity seems to have been consistently on the side of free 
will as opposed to determinism. There were the two 
Ways, of Life, and of Death, and the choice was open. 
This was but natural when it is remembered that the whole 


56 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


tendency of the Gentile world was towards the belief in 
the inevitable destiny of every man being dependent on 
planetary influences. In arguments between Christians 
and Greeks the question of free will was bound to appear. 


Little interest in certain topics, important later 

The means of redemption from sin were not often a 
subject for discussion. This was to be looked for, as all 
who submitted to baptism were justified thereby; and, 
so far as the Christian was concerned, his redemption was 
a thing of the past. Salvation was, in truth, sacramental. 
The spirit was saved in baptism and the flesh by partici- 
pation in the Eucharist. The cross was a sign of triumph 
and the power which put the demons to flight. It is re- 
markable how little interest was taken in many things 
which aroused furious controversy in later days, such as 
justification, grace, sanctification and the like; and even 
the writings of Paul failed to draw much attention to 
these topics before Augustine. 


Millennarianism 

On the other hand the deepest interest was felt in the 
future world. The last day was believed to be near and 
the question was whether this would not usher in an 
earthly millennium in which Christ would rule His peo- 
ple for a thousand years. The Church was divided on 
the subject of the predictions in the book of Revelation, 
the less instructed being on the side of literal interpreta- 
tion, whilst the educated Christians favoured softening 
the words of the seer by allegorising them. Millennarian- 
ism could boast the support of Papias, Bishop of Hierap- 
olis, whose association with apostolic men enhanced the 
authority of his opinions. In the third century it was the 
cause of the famous critical verdict of Dionysius of 
Alexandria that the Gospel and Apocalypse of John were 


THE CHURCH AS A SYSTEM OF BELIEF 57 


not by the same hand. It was supported by a discussion 
of the phraseology of the two books, thoroughly modern 
in tone. 


The future world 

The question of punishment and reward in the next 
world is perplexing, because we cannot say positively in 
what sense death is meant. It would be easy to say what 
became of all outside the Church in later time. They 
went to hell; and there was an end of it. But was it the 
primitive doctrine that all men were immortal, and that 
the only way to escape not merely annihilation but hell 
was through baptism? The vivid portrayal of the torments 
of the damned is found in Gnostic or Apocryphal rather 
than in orthodox sources. The point at issue is this: Did 
primitive Christianity preach the terrors of hell fire for 
all eternity as the only alternative to accepting the Gospel, 
as was done in later times, or did it content itself with 
holding out hopes of a glorious salvation in Christ? In 
other words, when did the belief that the soul was natu- 
rally immortal become an established doctrine? The idea 
that all souls would in the end be saved by the redemptive 
work of Christ, was not in primitive Christianity con- 
demned as heresy. 


The Holy Spirit 

Hitherto nothing has been said of the Third Person in 
the Godhead, without whom the doctrine of the Trinity 
could not have come into being. The Holy Spirit has 
been more necessary to Christian dogma than to piety, 
because of the difficulty of really discriminating between 
the part of Christ in salvation, and that of the Spirit. 
Even the promise of sending the Comforter to abide with 
His disciples for ever is not very different from the one 
“Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the 


58 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


world.” For the present it is sufficient to draw attention 
to the difference between the Jewish and Christian views 
of the Spirit. 

In the Old Testament a man was possessed by a spirit. 
He became the instrument by which it acted. God’s 
Spirit caused a man to prophesy, to run before the chariot 
of the king hastening to Jezreel, to slay Philistines, or 
carry the gates of a city. When the prophet announced 
his message, he did not speak in his own name. The for- 
mula, ‘Thus saith the Lord,” meant that God, and not the 
prophet, was actually speaking. The evil spirits, not 
those whom they possessed, proclaimed Jesus the Son of 
God, and Paul and Silas, servants of the Most High God. 
A madman is revered in the East because of the spirit 
which makes him not himself. But the Spirit, possibly in 
the Third Gospel and certainly in the Pauline letters, is a 
personal influence changing the nature and transforming 
the character. The Spirit of Jesus raises us from death 
to life. His fruits are “Love, joy, peace,” all the graces 
of the Christian character. In this way the Spirit be- 
comes the means by which God works in the heart. 


Early doctrine of the Trinity vague 

A difficulty, surprising to us till we see the reason, arose 
as to the gender of the Holy Spirit, which is masculine in 
Latin, neuter in Greek, but feminine in Aramzan. Thus 
in one Gospel the Spirit appears as the mother of Jesus 
and in the Apostolical Constitutions the bishop repre- 
sents the Father, the deacon the Son, and the deaconess 
the Holy Ghost. This shows the vagueness of the early 
doctrine of the Trinity which appears in its most ancient 
form in the baptismal formula in Matt. xxviii, 19, though 
the word is found in no patristic writer before A.D. 180 in 
Theophilus of Antioch. 


CHAPTER VI 
CHRISTIANITY AND THE GNOSIS 


Christianity was a practical, not a speculative religion. 
It held out the hope of a glorious future to those who be- 
lieved in Jesus as the Christ, and obeyed His laws. But 
many who embraced, or at least were interested in the 
new religion, brought their own prejudices and presuppo- 
sitions to explain it. The result was what is called 
Gnosticism. 


The Gnosis 

The Gnostic was a man possessed of Gnosis, or knowl- , 
edge. This does not mean that he claimed to be better | 
educated or more intellectual than others; but that he had | 
deeper spiritual perceptions. He had penetrated the se- — 
cret of the universe, and, if a Christian, he interpreted the 
revelation accordingly. For the Gnosis was not primarily 
Christian. It may be defined as an_ attitude of mind 
towards many religions. After all, the outward manifes- 
tation of religion in ceremonies, myth, and creed, is but a 
crude attempt to express the deeper feelings of men 
towards the Unseen; and these naturally vary with the 
spiritual condition of the individual. The Gnosis pro- | 
fessed to be the highest expression of the knowledge of — 
those to whom the whole truth had been vouchsafed. m 

The term Gnostic was lavishly employed by Christian 
writers. It is applied to arrant impostors, who impressed 
their dupes by magic and fraud, as well as to profound 
thinkers, who tried to solve problems of the greatest in- 

59 


60 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


terest, and it was adopted by the true believer, who saw 
below the surface of Christian literalism. In one sense 
Gnosticism was a phase which by the third century had 
passed away; in another it is so permanent among men 
that it may be said that it never can be traced to any 
beginning, and its end can never be predicted. A great 
deal of the most modern manifestations of religion are 
only the old Gnosticism in a new guise. 


Comparative religion 

Christianity appeared and was being diffused at a time 
when men were interested in what is now known as com- 
parative religion. Writers discoursed on the nature of 
the gods and the origin of the myths concerning them. 
New religions were eagerly studied, and adopted, and 
mystery religions were becoming widespread. Magic was 
universally believed in; and, as the name implies, was 
traced to the East. Even the religious beliefs and prac- 
tices in India were studied. Those of Egypt were sub- 
jects of intense curiosity. The simple fact that both 
Strabo and Pliny, the Elder, mention the Essenes is proof 
that even an obscure sect of Jews did not escape notice. 
No wonder therefore that efforts were made to combine 
Christianity with other systems and philosophies. 


The Timaeus 

The Gnosis had existed before Christianity, and its 
principles are to be found in the Timaeus of Plato which is 
an excellent introduction to the subject. According to 
Plato there are two worlds. The one around us, consist- 
ing of sensible objects, is but a shadow of the other, which 
is the world of essential forms (ideas), which are imma- 
terial. The ideas belong to the real world, and all visible 
objects are partial revelations of unseen actualities. Thus, 
what is material is but a type: the idea itself is the ulti- 


CHRISTIANITY AND THE GNOSIS 61 


mate reality. The world we see is the work of a creator 
or Demiurge who fashioned the things seen on the model 
of the unseen. In studying a Gnostic system we meet con- 
stantly with personified abstractions called AXons (ages, 
eternities), Christ, the Church, Truth, Light, Wisdom. 
These come forth, often in pairs, male and female, and 
play their parts, they generate other A®ons, and their 
adventures seem like a weird mythology. It is only when 
a Clue is in our hands that it is at all intelligible even to 
the initiated. At first sight, Gnosticism appears little 
better than a tissue of absurdities. Nevertheless some of 
its great exponents were evidently no mean philosophers. 
We are, however, under the disadvantage of only having 
garbled reports of their systems. The dangers of the 
Gnostic spirit were perceived by two New Testament writ- 
ers; and warnings against it are discoverable in the later 
Pauline Epistles and in the Johannine literature. 


Opponents of Gnosticism 

Its influence in the first decade of the second century 
was sufficient for Ignatius on his way to martyrdom to 
make special allusion to it; and before the close of the 
century it caused Irenzus, in one of the most important 
productions of early Christianity, to devote his whole 
energies to refute Gnosticism in Rome. Clement of 
Alexandria, almost the contemporary of frenzeus, is our 
next authority, and from Carthage, Tertullian issued his 
fierce invectives against the Gnosis. Immediately after- 
wards Hippolytus produced his Philosophumena. ‘Thus, 
in four of the greatest centres of Christian influence— 
Ignatius at Antioch, Irenzus, an Asiatic by birth and 
later a bishop in Gaul, at Rome, Clement at Alexandria, 
Tertullian at Carthage, devoted their energies in combat- 
ing Gnosticism. To these may be added Hippolytus and 
Origen, whose sermons on the Gospel according to St. 


62 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


John are in a measure an answer to the Gnostic commen- 
tary of Heracleon. In the farther East, Tatian and Bar- 
daisan would have been honoured teachers, but that they 
were under suspicion of Gnosticism. Of the immense vi- 
tality of this spirit in later days we shall have abundant 
cause to speak hereafter. The last great Christian writer 
on Gnosticism is Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus 
(d. 403). This erudite collector of all the heretical 
opinions which had distracted the Church till his day is 
often credulous, ill informed, and prejudiced; but his 
testimony cannot be ignored. 


Gnostic writings 

The Gnostic writings have not been allowed to survive; 
but here and there fragments have been preserved in the 
Church writers, and the popularity of the spurious Gospels 
and Acts enable us to know somewhat of their doctrines. 
The Clementine romances are really Gnostic, and so is the 
Pistis Sophia, a Valentinian treatise, which has been 
brought to light. The Gnostics have left their traces in 
amulets, charms, magical formule and gems; and, as will 
appear, in certain popular Christian ideas, whose parent- 
age is often unrecognised. 


Simon Magus 

The first Gnostic, the father of all heresy, is said to 
have been Simon Magus, who appears as the convert of 
Philip in the Acts of the Apostles (viii, 9 ff) in a notice 
which gives but a slight idea of his subsequent importance. 

Philip, one of the Seven, goes down to the “city of the 
Samaritans” and there finds that Simon, by his magic has 
astonished the people, who declare him to be the Great 
Power of God, or the Power of God which is called 
“Great.” Simon believes, and is baptised. The apostles 
at Jerusalem, hearing that Samaria has received the word 
of God, send Peter and John to give the Holy Ghost to 


CHRISTIANITY AND THE GNOSIS 63 


the new converts. Simon seeing (obviously by the gifts 
bestowed) that the imposition of the hands of Peter and 
John gives miraculous power, offers money if they will 
give him the ability to transmit what he obviously regards 
as the magic of the Holy Spirit. Peter rebukes Simon and 
says “I see that thou art in the gall of bitterness and 
in the bond of iniquity.” 

Here is no heresy, but what is found elsewhere in Acts: 
heathen or semi-heathen magic in opposition to Christian 
spiritual power, as is seen in the stories of Paul and 
Elymas (Acts xiii, 6 f), and the sons of Sceva (Acts xix, 
14). In Christian legend it is otherwise: there Simon 
Peter represents true doctrine and Simon Magus false. 
Yet it is to be borne in mind that in other legends, such as 
the Acts of Peter, the apostles and the magicians are rival 
wonder-workers. ‘The story in the Acts of the Apostles 
finds an echo in the Christian tradition that Simon Magus 
went to Rome and was worshipped as a god. Here, how- 
ever, it is necessary to dwell solely on what is said of the 
teaching of Simon in opposition to Christianity as taught 
by Peter. 


Simon’s heresy 

We only know of the opinions of Simon from one 
source, the Philosophumena of Hippolytus, which is sup- 
ported by a single remark of Theodoret (in the fifth 
century), that Simon had in his system six A*Xons; this 
is confirmed by Hippolytus. According to Simon the 
origin of all is fire, and the argument of his book, the 
Great Announcement, is to the effect that the Unbegotten 
Fire produced the Boundless Power who is potentially 
but not actually in six roots. These are Mind and 
Thought (epinoia), Voice and Name, Reason and Desire 
(enthymesis). These with Power, or “He who stood, 
stands, and will stand,” make up the number seven. 


64 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


The books of the Pentateuch and their titles signify the 
five senses; and the one river which became four streams 
in Paradise is explained physiologically. The Logos is 
stored up in the Tree of Life, where he is only potential, 
but may increase and become a boundless power. Hippol- 
ytus quotes at length from the Megalé Apophasis of 
Simon, and then goes on to relate the story found in the 
other Christian writers that the Thought (epimoza or 
ennoia) a female AXon, Simon’s own counterpart—he be- 
ing the Great Power—had long been imprisoned in the 
form of women of surpassing beauty, like Helen of Troy, 
and now dwelt in Helen of Tyre, who travelled as his 
companion having been “redeemed” by Simon when a 
prostitute. Hippolytus goes on further to say that Simon 
had been crucified, but only in appearance, in Judea as 
the Son, had been manifested as the Father in Samaria, 
and as the Holy Spirit elsewhere. His function was to 
save this world from the angels who ruled it. It is re- 
markable that Hippolytus here does not quote Simon’s 
book in this account, nor does he give it as authority for 
the immoral teaching he attributes to him. 


Were Simon of Acts, Simon the heretic and Simon the 
writer identical? 

There is in truth nothing in Simon’s words as here 
quoted that seems to have anything to do with Chris- 
tianity. So far as it is intelligible, it is debased mixture 
of Ophitism and Platonism, justified by an allegorical in- 
terpretation of the Old Testament. It is an open question 
whether the Simon of Acts, the Simon the magician who 
opposed Peter, and the Simon of the Megalé Apophasis 
are the same persons. What is important for us is that 
the system, as quoted by Hippolytus, is a pre-Christian 
or at any rate a non-Christian Gnosticism. There is the 
Unknown and remote First Cause, the emanations or 


CHRISTIANITY AND THE GNOSIS 65 


fZons, the World-ruling Angels, the redemption from this 
world of matter. In addition there are the charges of 
magic, and of gross immorality which are further devel- 
oped later by the credulity of Epiphanius. 


The Ophites 

Most Gnostic systems are tiresomely alike with one or 
two great exceptions. Of the earliest sects the most inter- 
esting are the Naassenes, or Ophites, the first, according 
to Hippolytus, who took the name of Gnostics, though the 
other fathers say the followers of Simon Magus were the 
earliest to assume the title. If Hippolytus means that the 
Ophites were the first Christian sect to be thus styled, he 
is probably right; for they were undoubtedly Christian 
in assigning to Jesus Christ the highest place in their 
system, which follows the usual Gnostic scheme of a 
Great Unknown Principle and a series of worlds, the low- 
est of which is our material universe. The distinctive 
characteristics of Ophitism are the reverence for the 
Serpent and the doctrine that this world is ruled by a 
positively evil being called Ialdabaoth. The Serpent 
comes probably from Asia Minor, where every temple is 
said to have had its serpent deity. He is the virtuous 
offspring of Ialdabaoth, and saves man by inducing him 
to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 
All peoples, according to Ophite hymns quoted by 
Hippolytus, worshipped the one God under different 
names. The rituals were elaborate, and savoured much 
of heathenism; but it is notable that in all the Gnostic 
systems, even if in a perverted form, the Christian sacra- 
ments of baptism and the Eucharist are recognised. The 
Ophites had a most elaborate system of directions for the 
soul after death as it passed through the seven heavens, 
and diagrams to guide its progress were designed. Celsus, 
the great anti-Christian writer about A.D. 170, alludes to 


66 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


this Ophite Book of the Dead, and Origen, answering him 
before the middle of the third century, says that by his 
time the Ophites had become a very obscure sect. Epi- 
phanius has preserved extracts from the Gospel of Philip, 
which they used. They were certainly an ancient sect, 
and soon ceased to justify their name of Naassenes or 
Ophites by making the Serpent less and less prominent in 
their doctrines. 


The power of evil 

But the enduring element in Ophitism was that the 
Serpent, who was identified with Satan, was really the 
benefactor of humanity. The God of this world was a 
jealous, vindictive being, who, under the guise of law, 
desired to hold man in subjection by keeping him in igno- 
rance. His rival, the Serpent or Satan, restored him to 
liberty. Hence what was called good is really evil; and 
evil is good. This revolt against convention, morality, 
law, continually took different forms under varying cir- 
cumstances; but it is fundamentally the same whether in 
early or later times. It gives expression to the eternal 
protest of the human mind against the rule by which dis- 
cipline is maintained, whether in the natural, social, or 
spiritual order of the world. It is a perpetual revolt 
against the Hebrew element in Christianity, in so far as it 
upholds the basic doctrine of the Law and the Prophets 
that the true God requires above all things right conduct 
on the part of those who profess to do Him service. 


Why the Church could not accept Gnosticism 

This, and other Gnostic philosophies, aimed at assimi- 
lating Christianity to the religions around. Against this 
tendency the Church struggled desperately though not 
always with success. It was the same contest under a 
different form that was being waged against the Roman 
Empire. The price of toleration was that the Church 


CHRISTIANITY AND THE GNOSIS 67 


should acknowledge the divinity of Cesar and accept the 
existing order. The other religions made a similar offer. 
Let the Church recognise that all really worshipped one / 
God under different names, and adapt some of the prac- 
tices of the age, and it might form a nucleus for a uni- 
versal religion. But the Church would not abandon its 
unique position. It stood for absolute truth, and its 
message to the world was open to all men and could not 
be changed. For the Christians possessed two things: a 
faith once delivered to the saints, and a promise of salva- 
tion for all. It could not be untrue to its sacred deposit 
of the truth, nor could it offer a salvation open only to a 
few enlightened intelligences. Its message was clear, not 
esoteric, and addressed to a select few. To a certain 
extent the Church stood firm. But it will be abundantly 
evident on further consideration that the Church yielded 
ground quite unconsciously and adapted both its beliefs 
and practices to changed conditions. Before this, how- 
ever, a further consideration of Gnosticism is necessary, 
and of how the triumph of the Church over this formi- 
dable adversary was achieved. 

An examination of the best Gnostic teachers will reveal 
how each system is an attempt to carry to its extreme 
logical conclusion each of the three great strands of Chris- 
tian doctrine in the New Testament, represented by the 
names of John, Paul, and James. It may be by chance: 
but the apostolic opponent of the teaching is always 
Peter, who stands for catholic Christianity. 

The Gnostics perverted the Faith; but at least they/ 
taught the Christians to think out their problems. They 
were the first biblical critics, commentators, hymn-writers, 
and, in a sense, theologians. They are accused of immoral 
doctrines and practices, but so were the members of the 
Church by their opponents. At any rate, Gnosticism is an 
important phase in the development of Christianity. 


CHAPTER VII 


THE GNOSTICS AND THE LEADING APOSTLES 


Three types of Chrsstianity 

As the New Testament Canon was being completed 
various sides of Christianity began to appear; and three 
types of teachers stood forward pre-eminently—James, 
the Lord’s brother, John the beloved disciple, and Paul, 
the Apostle of the Gentiles. James stands for Chris- 
tianity as a form of Judaism; John for the Faith in its 
theological aspect; and Paul for the Church in contra- 
distinction to the Synagogue. Each has his counterpart 
in Gnosticism, Jewish, theological, and anti-Judaising; 
and the representatives of these phases are Cerinthus, 
Valentinus, and Marcion. The two first named may be 
considered as founders of schools; but Marcion, who pos- 
sessed somewhat of the constructive ability of St. Paul, 
organised a church. 


James and Judatising Gnostics 

According to Josephus the murder of James by the High 
Priest Ananus, just before the siege of Jerusalem, drew 
down the divine wrath upon the devoted city. Eusebius 
quotes Hegesippus’ account of his extreme ritual purity — 
and his devotion in the Temple. The Jews all recognised — 
his holiness, and he was called “The Righteous” and — 
“Oblias,” meaning defence of the people. Some of the : 
seven sects asked him, “What is the door of Jesus?” and — 
he declared Jesus to be the Christ. But the rulers were — 
alarmed because people began to expect Jesus to come as — 

68 


THE GNOSTICS AND THE LEADING APOSTLES 69 


the Christ, and begged James to stand on the pinnacle of 
the Temple and persuade them that they were mistaken. 
As he still preached Jesus, he was cast down, stoned, and 
finally killed by a fuller’s club. Here we have a Christian 
leader highly honoured as a Jewish ascetic by his country- 
men, who buried him near the Temple and set up a monu- 
ment to him. 

Judaism as a religion was naturally neither ascetic nor 
speculative; but the Jew could not escape the influence of 
the spirit of the age. He shared in its admiration for the 
discipline which delighted in tormenting the body, and in 
the interest taken in spiritual beings who acted as media 
between man and God. The Jewish philosophers indulged 
in an allegorism applied to Scripture which had been bor- 
rowed from the Greeks, and in theories about the divine 
Word or Wisdom; the common people hoped for a new 
world order and a national triumph, and in the meantime 
resorted to magic and sorcery. Thus, here were all the 
elements for Judaic Gnosticism among the converts to 
Christianity. 


Distinctive features of Jewish Gnosticism 

The creation of the world by angels, the celestial hier- 
archy, the remoteness of the Supreme Being, and His con- 
tact with the world through intermediaries are common to 
all Gnostic systems, whether they incline to Judaism or are 
Gentilic and anti-Jewish in origin. What is characteristic 
of Judaising Gnosticism is the idea that Jesus was a man, 
the greatest of the prophets, who at His baptism was 
adopted as the Son of God by the outpouring or descent of 
the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, being, as has been already 
indicated, feminine in Aramaic, is in the Gospel of the 
Hebrews spoken of as “‘the Mother of Jesus,” and thus we 
have a feminine element in the Trinity. This appears also 
in the oriental “Hymn of the Soul.” In fact, nothing is 


70 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


more noteworthy in all these Gnostic systems than the in- 
sistence, in some form or other, of the female side of 
Deity. This, it may be noted, is not, like the modern 
cultus of the Virgin, due to the desire for something 
motherly and compassionate. It seems rather that the 
female, as well as the male, must be represented in the 
generative power which produces AXons, however spiritu- 
ally these are conceived. Judaic Gnosticism played an 
insignificant part in Christian development, unless the 
persistent heresy of Adoptionism be due to it. 


Qualities personified in Fourth Gospel 

In the prologue to the Fourth Gospel, and in the utter- 
ances put into the mouth of Jesus by John, qualities are 
in a sense personified. In the beginning was the Word. 
In Him Life came into being. Life is the Light of men. 
The Light shone in the Darkness. The Light came to His 
own things, but His own people did not receive Him: to 
such as believed in Him was given power to become sons 
of God. Of his Fulness we have all received Grace. The 
Law came by Moses, Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ. 
No man hath seen God at any time. The Only Begotten 
(Monogenés) who is in the bosom of the Father has de- 
clared Him. This Word became Flesh and we beheld his 
Glory. Out of this material, by means of a species of 
romance which may seem to us absolute nonsense, as it 
did to some of the fathers, but not to the most philosoph- 
ical, a theological system was evolved. We have only a 
perverted form of it, but if we remember that this 
personification of abstract ideas does not represent 
them as a multitude of semi-pagan deities, but eternal 
realities (in the philosophic sense), it is not only beautiful 
but contains many sublime truths, not alien to the teach- 
ing of the most spiritual of the Gospels. 


THE GNOSTICS AND THE LEADING APOSTLES 71 


V alentinus 

About the time of the philosophical Emperor Hadrian, 
a Christian philosopher named Valentinus arose in Egypt. 
That he was no pagan is admitted. Tertullian says he had 
hoped to be elected a bishop, but was rejected in favour of 
a man who had confessed Christ by his sufferings. He 
visited Rome and there gave his explanation of the teach- 
ing of John, in which are all the materials for a Gnostic 
scheme. A God unknown and unknowable save through 
his Word, a Fulness (or Pleroma) including the divine 
attributes Life, Light, Grace, Truth, and, as is after- 
wards declared, Love. These are opposed to Darkness, 
the type of Evi, and the Law, of Moses, as contrasted 
with Grace. The system of Valentinus is an explanation 
of this in an allegory. 


System of Valentinus 

The true God cannot be known per se. The essence of 
His Being is Profundity (Bythus = depth). Associated 
with Him is Silence; contained in Him are all the attri- 
butes of Godhead. These are classified in pairs, each con- 
sisting of a masculine quality with its feminine counter- 
part, the Profundity Himself having no consort, unless it 
be Silence. From Him emerge thirty eternal realities 
(ions). These are divided into three groups of eight, ten, 
and twelve, called respectively the Ogdoad, Decad, and 
Dodecad. The lowest of these is Sophia or Wisdom. 
She is the youngest, and, unlike the others, is restless with 
a desire to know. In this thirst for more knowledge she 
is inferior to all her associates who are each contented 
with his or her place in the fulness, or Pleroma. Wisdom 
seeks to find out God in his Profundity. She soars up- 
ward but cannot attain to her desire. Plunged in sorrow 
she produces a shapeless thing or abortion in the form of 
a Lower Wisdom which is called Achamoth (the Hebrew 


72 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Chokmah = wisdom). This being cannot be included in 
the Fulness, because she is inferior and not essentially per- 
fect, as are all the thirty AZons. Thus Wisdom can still 
retain her place; her progeny cannot. Still the Lower 
Wisdom struggles upward, but a restraining influence ap- 
pears in Limitation (Horos = boundary, or Stauros 
== the Cross), who keeps her out of the Fulness. Like 
Wisdom, her mother, Achamoth falls into despair and 
produces something inferior to herself. This is the 
Creator (Demiurgos) of material existence. In this way 
the visible universe with its seven heavens comes into be- 
ing. The allegory explains the powerlessness of Wisdom, 
even in its highest form, to discover the great secret of 
Divine Perfection, the unrest and dissatisfaction which 
makes Wisdom in despair recede still further and further 
from God till we reach this evil material universe ruled by 
the abortion of an abortion of true Wisdom. The whole 
world we live in lieth in the Evil One, and a scheme of 
redemption becomes imperatively necessary, redemption 
being the restoration of everything to its proper place. 


Jesus and redemption 

The rash attempt of Wisdom to explore the Unknowable 
had produced confusion in the Divine Fulness, and for 
the restoration of peace two other Eternities were called 
into being. These were Christ and the Holy Spirit, male 
and female counterparts. The result of this harmony was 
an agreement that each Aon should in honour of the 
Profundity contribute of his best, the result being Jesus, 
the very star and the perfect fruit of all that is divine. 
Christ visited the Lower Wisdom and filled her with de- 
sire for Him before He returned to the Fulness. In this 
way, there are in mankind three elements derived from 
this Lower Wisdom; the spiritual, from her and Christ, 
the psychic, from her and the Creator, and the purely ma- 


THE GNOSTICS AND THE LEADING APOSTLES 73 


terial or carnal, under the Prince of this world (Cosmo- 
crator). Mankind is divided into the same three classes; 
those capable of true enlightenment and the highest re- 
demption belong to the first, the children of the Creator 
to the second, and the last, or carnal, to the third. The 
Incarnation was explained less as actual than it appeared. 
Christ was born of the Virgin, but passed through her like 
water does through a pipe; that is, He did not really par- 
take of her. In a sense He shared in all three parts of 
human nature; but the higher of these in Him could en- 
dure no pain. His function is to enlighten those who are 
His and restore all. The Lower Wisdom will be raised 
and purified and given a place in the Divine Fulness as 
will all who are redeemed with her. The Creator and His 
servants will have salvation, but on a lower scale. 


Not entirely unchristian 

Such then is the theology of Valentinus; and in some 
respects its departure from that of the Church is not so 
great as might be supposed. The Profundity, for ex- 
ample, is not mere negation. He is Love. He produces 
the A‘ons because He must have objects for His love; 
“for he loveth not to be alone.” The arguments are all 
based on the New Testament Scriptures. Heracleon, 
Valentinus’ disciple, is the first Christian commentator. 


Opponents of Valentinus 

The heresy was, at the same time, regarded as a very 
formidable one. Irenzus’ Refutation wastes no time in 
discussing the origin of heresy, but goes straight for that 
of Valentinus. He had special reason for so doing, for 
one of the followers of this error had been in Gaul, prac- 
tising all the arts of an impostor in the magical rites he 
introduced into the celebration of the Eucharist. Ter- 
tullian and Hippolytus both devote special attention to 
Valentinus. But according to Ireneus there was an 


74 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Eastern and a Western form of the system; and in its 
native Egypt it was not so unfavourably regarded. 
Neither Clement nor Origen abuse Valentinus, and Origen 
in his homilies on St. John’s Gospel discusses Heracleon’s 
Commentary with respect. What he does object to is the 
aristocratic attitude of Gnosticism which provides one 
salvation for the enlightened, and another for less in- 
structed Christians. But both he and Clement make the 
same distinction in the way they themselves impart the 
truths of religion. 

The last prominent notice of Valentinianism is the 
destruction of one of its conventicles at the end of the 
fourth century by the bishop of Callinicum, aided by 
monks and a mob. Here Ambrose of Milan withstood 
Theodosius in a manner less to his credit than on the 
occasion of the massacre at Thessalonica. 


Pistis Sophia 

The Pistis Sophia (Faith Wisdom) is the surviving 
literary record of this heresy. It is preserved in a Coptic 
MS. in the British Museum and was translated into Latin 
by a young German scholar named Schwartze in 1850. 
The book is a strange medley. Pistis Sophia is the Wis- 
dom of Valentinus; and Jesus, who remains eleven years 
with His disciples after the Resurrection, explains how 
He descended from heaven to redeem her. Part is occu- 
pied by many questions put to Jesus by Mary Magdalene, 
and part by so-called ‘““Texts of the Saviour.” There are 
vivid descriptions of heaven and the terrors of hell, and 
great stress is laid on the power of the Mysteries (Sacra- 
ments) to save souls, 


Pauline Gnosticism 
Paul is the greatest example of practical wisdom in the 
early history of the Church. His singularly alert and 


THE GNOSTICS AND THE LEADING APOSTLES 75 


comprehensive mind was devoted to one great idea of 
making the message he had from Jesus world wide. So 
great a salvation could not be for his own race only, but 
must be for all mankind; and consequently all barriers 
to the universal diffusion of the Gospel must be destroyed. 
At the same time, the Apostle felt intensely that his own 
conversion to the truth was due to an astonishing act of 
grace, and that he himself had been chosen for his work 
by God’s fore-knowledge. For this reason Paul stood 
for determinism rather than for the freedom of the will, 
which the majority of Christians held to in opposition to 
the Gnostics, who, by dividing men as Paul had done into 
three classes, were in favour of predestination. 

But in the early Church the writings of Paul were more 
admired than understood; and even where his opposition 
to the Law would have been most effective, Gnostics like 
Valentinus and the Ophites seem to have neglected his 
arguments; and their anti-Judaism was not Pauline. A 
contemporary of Valentinus was the first to make a serious 
attempt to interpret and bring to its logical conclusion the 
Pauline theology. 


Marcton 

Like Valentinus, Marcion was a member of the Church 
and like him is thought to have aspired to be a bishop. 
He was a native of Sinope, and by profession was a ship- 
owner. ‘Tertullian opens his attack upon him by a fierce 
invective against the climate and inhabitants of his native 
land, declaring that it never produced anything more 
detestable than this heretic; but this must be taken not 
literally but as a forensic opening of the case against 
Marcion, and the rest of Tertullian’s long refutation of 
his opinions show that they seemed to him worthy of 
serious consideration. The fact is, Marcion was a man 
of great originality and critical ability, and, unlike other 


76 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Gnostics, a follower of Christ who was as ready to die for 
Him as any of the orthodox. 

Marcion’s system has many features common to Gnos- 
ticism—a God remote from Creation, an inferior God as 
world-ruler and God of the Jews, a Christ not truly incar- 
nate but suffering in appearance only (docetic), one 
redemption for the spiritual, another for the merely physi- 
cal believers. His originality is displayed in his charac- 
terisation of (a) the Unknown God, (b) the Creator and 
the Mosaic Law, (c) his criticism of the New Testament. 
His book is called the Antithests (contrasts) in which the 
God revealed by Moses is shown in opposition to the God 
of Jesus Christ. 

(a) His Unknown God is more Christian than Gnostic. 
He is not entirely remote and unknowable. He has noth- 
ing to do, it is true, with the material world; but He is 
actively loving, and sends His Son to save and enlighten 
us. Marcion’s God is emphatically love. 

(b) The God of this world is not Satan, nor Ialdabaoth, 
nor any evil being. He is just rather than loving, the sort 
of character we often meet, which compels respect with- 
out inspiring affection. Inflexibly just, he errs through 
want of discrimination, and prefers the cautiously pious 
Jacob to the generous Esau. His favourites refuse the 
salvation offered by the true Christ (for Marcion taught 
that the Unknown would have one Christ and the Creator 
the other), being satisfied with their own eminently re- 
spectable heaven. In his estimate of the Law, Marcion 
follows Jesus rather than Paul. To our Lord, the Law is 
an imperfect morality. ‘Moses for the hardness of your 
heart wrote you this commandment.” To Paul it is holy, 
just, and good, but impotent to save. To Marcion it is 
just but unloving. It is easier to sympathise with the 
insight of the heretic, than the arguments of the apostle 
in support of a noble cause. 


CO 


THE GNOSTICS AND THE LEADING APOSTLES 77 


(c) Marcion rejected the Old Testament as a work 
inspired by an inferior God; and of the New he accepted 
only parts of St. Luke’s Gospel, and the Pauline Epistles. 
His criticism is at times discriminating, but many of his 
alterations were made because the words of the Scripture 
were in conflict with his views. 

Valentinus was the most poetical, Marcion the most. 
keen sighted, of the Gnostics. Our next task is to see why 
and how their views needed to be refuted by the rising 
Catholic Church. 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE REPLY OF THE CHURCH TO GNOSTICISM 


Why Gnosticism failed 

Justice has, it is to be hoped, been done to the attrac- 
tive side of Gnosticism. It must, however, be borne in 
mind that, had its teachers succeeded, the energy of the 
Church would have been dissipated in numberless short- 
lived philosophical sects. Atons, emanations, and theories 
about angelic hierarchies could not, conjoined with magi- 
cal arts and pretended revelations of the world beyond the 
grave, make a world-conquering religion; and Christianity 
had to live, not in the philosophic atmosphere of the 
second century, but through ruder days of darkness and 
ignorance. To survive, the Church had to become a dis- 
ciplined organisation held firmly together and insisting on 
its laws being observed by its members. It could not be 
a school of philosophy, enjoying academic freedom. It 
must live by holding to its principles of authority, and 
by insistence on its laws of morality; for it is to be 
observed that when the Christians yielded so far to the 
Gnostic spirit and became philosophers, the moral force 
of the Church was weakened, as it was in the fourth and 
fifth centuries and in the palmy days of Scholasticism. 
Tertullian has been perhaps unjustly blamed for asking 
‘What has philosophy to do with the Church?” 


Paul hints at Gnosticism 
Whether Paul, in his later epistles, especially to the 
Colossians, attacks any form of Gnosticism is an open 
78 


THE REPLY OF THE CHURCH TO GNOSTICISM 9 


question. It appears certain he is thinking of the Gnostic 
spirit in religion, its exclusiveness, its interest in specula- 
tion as opposed to those things which are of the essence 
of true religion, its extravagant estimate of the value of 
asceticism. In the New Testament also we find stress laid 
on the fact that the power of working miracles in the 
Church is not due to magic but to something infinitely 
higher, namely faith, and that knowledge (gzosis) may 
be precious, but is not comparable to Christian virtue. 
Whilst the powers in the heavenly spheres are recognised, 
Christ is placed over all, as He would be by most Gnostics, 
and the reality of the Incarnation is of supreme 
importance. 


Ignatius and Docetism 

In one series of legends it is John, in another Peter, 
who is the protagonist of the apostles against Gnosticism; 
John being the opponent of Cerinthus, and Simon Peter 
of Simon Magus. The Deacon Nicolaus is also said to 
have been the founder of the sect mentioned in Revela- 
tion. The first definite protest comes from Ignatius of 
Antioch. It is interesting to observe that in the letters 
of this very early Christian martyr a keynote of later 
Antiochene theology is struck by his insistence on the 
humanity of our Lord. Ignatius, with his usual fervour, 
insists that Jesus truly suffered and not only in seeming 
(Dokesis). Yet in his epistles there are words and 
phrases which are decidedly Gnostic. The Word comes 
forth from Silence. There are ‘three mysteries of a cry.” 
The birth of Jesus is hidden from Satan (who here shows 
the same ignorance as the Gnostic Creator). Ignatius’ 
insistence on the need of unity and obedience to the 
Christian bishop may be due to his fear of the disinte- 
grating power of incipient Gnosticism. 


80 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Ireneus 

The Church’s attack on Gnosticism opened with 
Irenzus’ books against heresies which have only been pre- 
served in a bald Latin translation, though some extracts 
of the original Greek are quoted by later writers. And 
here it may be well to recollect that even in early times 
the Church produced men well capable of defending its 
doctrines and upholding its opinions; and that Irenzeus 
is one of the most valuable witnesses to Christian belief. 
A native of Asia Minor, he was a pupil of the venerable 
martyr Polycarp, who was burned alive in Smyrna about 
156, at the age of 86, and therefore was born in 70, the 
year of the fall of Jerusalem. Polycarp had been a dis- 
ciple of John, and Irenzeus was therefore separated from 
the Apostles by only a single link. As has been indicated 
before, Irenzus attacks particularly the heresy of Valen- 
tinus. First he states the doctrine, then he refutes it, 
sometimes earnestly, sometimes by ridicule. Next he 
shows that as a novelty it has no right to be heard, and is, 
moreover, opposed to the teaching of Scripture. But 
Irenzeus’ chief weapons are (I) the tradition of the 
Apostles, (II) the episcopal succession, and (III) the 
Canon of Scripture. 


I. Tradition of the Apostles 

(1) Of the tradition of the Church of Ephesus, Irenzeus 
speaks with personal knowledge. As he writes in his old 
age to his friend Ptolemzus, who had lapsed into heresy, 
he remembered in his old age the things he had heard in 
youth better than what had just been told him. He knew 
that when Polycarp, not long before his martyrdom, 
visited Rome in the pontificate of Anicetus, and Marcion 
had asked him if he knew who he was had replied, “I 
know thee the first-born of Satan.” He remembered that 
he had heard that John, the disciple of the Lord, had 


THE REPLY OF THE CHURCH TO GNOSTICISM 81 


rushed out of the bath house when Cerinthus was there 
lest it should fall “because Cerinthus, the enemy of the 
truth, is within.” ‘Thus, he shows that from the first the 
apostles had a horror of heresy and its teachers. 


II. Episcopal succession 

(II) But how did the Church maintain the true doc- 
trine for so many generations? Many churches were 
founded by an apostle: and the bishops in unbroken 


succession taught the faith as it had been delivered to _ 


them by the apostles. Not to enumerate all, Irenzus 
takes the Roman Church, founded by Peter and Paul. 
Every church should agree with this one because of its 
pre-eminent authority (potentiorem principalitatem). 
Peter and Paul appointed Linus the first bishop, after him 
came Anacletus, then Clement, who had seen the blessed 
apostles. In Clement’s time the letter of the Church of 
Rome to that of Corinth is proof that Gnosticism did not 
exist, and that the God of the Jews was recognised by 
the Church. After Clement came Evarestus, Alexander, 
Sextus, Telelesphorus, who was martyred, Hyginus, Pius, 
Anicetus, Soter, and Eleutherus, the twelfth in order, and 
the pope when Irenzus wrote. ‘That none of these 
bishops, and no catholic bishops, had ever heard of the 
teachings of Valentinus was a proof of its novelty and 
falsity. 


III. Canon of Scripture 

(III) In his description of Gnostic errors Ireneus 
says that, “they introduce that false and wicked story,” 
and proceeds to tell the familiar tale from the Gospel of 
Thomas of how the child Jesus refused to learn the rest 
of the alphabet till the master had explained the mystery 
of the first letter, Aleph. Later he shows how the Gnos- 
tics themselves acknowledge only four gospels, though 


82 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


they add to them and mutilate them. Thus, the Ebionites 
based their teaching on Matthew, Marcion on an abridged 
Luke, and Valentinus on John. His argument that there 
can be four Gospels, and neither more nor less, because 
there are but four principal (Greek, catholic) winds, four 
faces of the cherubim, four living creatures in Revelation, 
may not to us appear conclusive, but shows that he based 
this faith on what we consider to be Holy Scripture. 


The Eucharist and the Resurrection of the flesh 

The most interesting part of Irenzus’ anti-Gnostic 
argument is perhaps his teaching on the Eucharist. His 
first object is to show that it is a continuation of the an- 
cient sacrifices which, in accordance with the prophecy of 
Malachi, have been replaced throughout the world by a 
purer offering. It was necessary to defend the Old Testa- 
ment for the continuity of the two dispensations, the old 
being throughout a preparation for Christ, who did not 
come suddenly as Marcion taught. The Eucharist is also 
a continuation of the offering of the first fruits, but the 
Church does so in a purer manner than the Jews, “offering 
the first fruits of his own created things.” Christ took 
bread, that created thing, and the cup ‘‘which is part of 
the creation to which we belong.” This refutes the whole 
Gnostic view of the evil of material things. In the syna- 
gogues of the heretics there can be no proper Eucharist 
on this account. The bread and wine when consecrated 
consist of two realities, the earthly and the heavenly, and 
if the former be denied, as by the Gnostics, how can there 
be a proper offering? Is it so to Christians, because flesh 
and spirit will both be raised to eternity? 


Hippolytus 

Irenzus was followed in a few years by another Greek- 
speaking opponent of Gnosticism in Rome, Hippolytus, 
the saint and bishop whose identity was so long a mys- 


THE REPLY OF THE CHURCH TO GNOSTICISM 83 


tery but is now established as that of a rival to Pope 
Callistus at Rome. A short and unimportant treatise, 
called the Philosophumena, or Philosophisings, had long 
been known and was published in 1701 and attributed to 
Origen. In 1840 much of the continuation of this was 
discovered on Mount Athos, and from the later chapters 
on the heresy of Callistus it became evident that Hip- 
polytus, whoever he was, was the author. Two books are 
lost, but the most important part, those on the heresies, 
remain. It is considered that the whole is a series of 
lecture notes, delivered at Rome in the first part of the 
third century, with the object of showing that the opinions 
of the heretics are really purely pagan, being borrowed 
wholesale from the ancient philosophers. 

Hippolytus is far more pretentious in his learning than 
Trenzus. He begins by describing all the philosophies of 
antiquity, including the Brachmans among the Indians 
and the Druids among the Celts. Two books are lost, and 
the fourth is devoted to the astrology and divination of 
his age. Hippolytus then goes on with his elaborate de- 
scription of the Ophite heresies illustrated by quotations 
from their writings. But where he can be checked it is 
evident that his knowledge is miscellaneous rather than 
exact. Irenzus, as compared with Hippolytus, if his read- 
ing is less, knows better what he wants to prove, and 
generally gains his end. The style of Hippolytus is often 
rude—this was noticed by Photius, the most omnivorous 
reader of his (the ninth century) or almost any other age, 
who also remarks that Hippolytus denied the Pauline 
authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews. 

Hippolytus quotes Irenzeus, whom he regards with great 
respect; but the objects of the two are not identical. 
Irenzus holds that the Church is right and states its posi- 
tion, whilst Hippolytus labours to show how all heresy is 
pagan. 


84 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Tertullian 

Tertullian, the third early writer against heresy, is a 
greater man either than Ireneus or Hippolytus. Ter- 
tullian is the representative of the Roman lawyers who 
were attracted by Christianity. His home was Carthage 
and he displays much of the earnestness and not a little 
of the implacability of the African churchman. In char- 
acter he resembles Marcion’s Creator, inflexibly just and 
by no means amiable. Had he been allowed to live again 
in England under Elizabeth, or in New England a genera- 
tion or so later, he would easily have found his place as a 
rigid Puritan. He brought his legal training into his 
Christianity. For theories he had little sympathy: to 
him an opinion was wrong, if he could show that it was 
illegal. In later life he became a member of the western 
Montanistic sect which was celebrated for its gloomy 
fanaticism. Hardly any Christian teacher can be found 
less in sympathy with the liberal thought of today, yet his 
counterpart is to be found in most churches. Yet even 
those who like Tertullian least must find much to admire 
in him. As a literary artist he may be compared to 
Tacitus and Carlyle. He made out of the forcible African 
Latin a language of his own. He invents phrases which 
have become proverbs. He can annihilate an opponent 
by anepigram. True his language is often crabbed, that 
he uses words in so technical a sense that we often miss 
the drift of his argument, that he says things so pointedly 
that he cannot be translated into any language. Never- 
theless, he is never dull or unreadable and hardly a page 
of his lacks some striking expression. His morality is 
pure and elevated, his honesty unquestionable. His argu- 
ments, if perverse at times, are generally sound. 
Tertullian’s view of philosophy 

Such a man as Tertullian had a natural horror of 
Gnosticism. “What has philosophy to do with the 


THE REPLY OF THE CHURCH TO GNOSTICISM 85 


Church?” he asks. Not that he lacks a philosophy of his 
own; for his theology coloured that of the entire western 
Church and played a great part in the development of 
dogma. But he has no patience with theories: to him a 
Gnostic is a perverse theorist and a careless thinker, whe 
tries to expound Scripture. By what right does he do so? 
Scripture is the property of the Church, and without its 
mind no outsider can comprehend its meaning. The 
Church is a living organism. It is regularly constituted, 
and has a lawful existence. A Gnostic sect is an undisci- 
plined collection of faddists lacking cohesion, without any 
regular ministry. A system like Marcion’s has no foun- 
dation, it is not Scriptural, not even logical. Press his 
argument to a conclusion and he will be found to acknowl- 
edge not two gods, the True God and the’ Creator, but 
any number of gods. Tertullian hits hard and his blows 
tell. He is not the sort of theologian who would convert 
his opponent, but rather would delight his supporters by 
the vehemence of his attack. He was so conversant with 
Greek that he also wrote in that language; and used 
Irenzus as his main authority. 


Alexandrtan School 

It is not, however, to Tertullian that we must look for 
the triumph of the Church over Gnosticism, but to the 
great teachers of Alexandria, especially Clement and 
Origen. They could sympathise more with its merits as 
well as recognise its defects, and thus undermine its influ- 
ence by borrowing from it when it was right, and exposing 
its errors. Ambrose, the generous friend of Origen, was 
won over by this teacher from the school of Valentinus. 

It was Clement who really vanquished Gnosticism, not 
by controversial methods but by substituting for its sys- 
tems a real school of Christian philosophy. ‘The three 
titles of his chief works indicate this. Clement begins his 


86 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


literary labours by an exhortation to the heathen, address- 
ing himself principally to Greeks to enter the Church. 
When they have entered, he prepares an Instructor 
(Pedagogus), who is to train them in the principles of 
religion. Finally, in the Miscellanies (Stromatets = car- 
pet bags) Clement indoctrinates his carefully prepared 
disciple into the mystery of Christian philosophy. This is 
the same as the Neo-Platonic course, Purification, Initia- 
tion, Vision, and may either foreshadow it or be part of 
a threefold stage of training. At any rate, Clement op- 
poses to Gnosticism a regular system of Christian 
education. 


Gnosticism in Clement 

In some respects Clement is a Gnostic. His definition 
of God recalls the fact that the Egyptian Basilides defined 
Him as the supreme negation. He is formless and name- 
less, though we sometimes give Him titles which are not 
to be taken in their proper sense; the One, the Good, 
Intelligence or Existence, or Father, or God, or Creator, 
or Lord. Clement agrees with Plato that God is beyond 
“Reality” (ousta), he even says He is beyond the One. 
The Son is the Consciousness of God. 


Clement fundamentally Christian 

But at the back of his philosophy Clement is a Chris- 
tian. Scripture is to him the basis of true knowledge; to 
serve Others is the prime duty of life. He is impressed 
with the goodness of Christ to His Church. In some re- 
spects, despite the difficulty of his language, he is one of 
the most attractive of the Fathers. His life was passed 
in the serene atmosphere of a lifelong learner and teacher. 
He takes a hopeful view of human nature, he loved litera- 
ture and read widely. Gnosticism was, as writers of all 
schools admit, a great danger to the infant Church, but 


THE REPLY OF THE CHURCH TOGNOSTICISM 87 


it was, as far as was possible, killed by the learning of 
Clement, and not by the heavy blows of Tertullian. 


The true Gnostic 

Clement’s most interesting contribution is the way he 
describes the true Gnostic, as he calls the ideal Christian. 
Faith is the basis of everything, and knowledge builds 
thereon, and the object of both is to bring man into 
harmony with the Eternal Will. Knowledge is in fact 
made perfect by love. The Gnosis of Clement is, in truth, 
a noble mysticism. 

By the days of Origen (d. 252) the old Gnosticism had 
passed away. Great Christian schools of thought and a 
new philosophy were about to arise in Neo-Platonism. 
The immense services to religion, interpretation of Scrip- 
ture, theology, and Christian learning of Origen, must be 
treated elsewhere. It is significant that Clement was thir- 
teen centuries after his death removed from the calendar 
of saints, and Origen’s orthodoxy became the subject of 
one of the most furious controversies in the history of 
the Church. 


CHAPTER IX 


POPULAR CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 


Desire for a popular religious literature 

The average Christian was neither a theologian nor a 
philosopher. He wanted edification and diversion in his 
reading. The Church supplied this, but not so exten- 
sively as the Gnostics. Orthodoxy is represented by the 
Shepherd of Hermas which opens with a romantic story 
of how Hermas was sold as a slave to a lady he loved 
and, after he had obtained his liberty, met again. She 
then appeared in a vision and revealed mysteries to him, 
being succeeded by a venerable lady representing the 
Church, and then by the Shepherd by whom many truths 
were allegorically conveyed to him. But it was the Gnos- 
tics who provided a literature for which the common folk 
craved, stories of the Virgin Mother, of the Infancy of 
Christ, of His boyhood, of His descent into the lower 
parts of the earth, and also the adventures of those little 
known but much revered persons, the Twelve Apostles. 
These were so in demand that the Church strove to give 
them a more orthodox form, and only in part succeeded, 
as nearly all retain traces of their original parentage. 


Christian Apocrypha poor in quality but important 
The literature of this description is very poor; the 
stories are often as unedifying as they are incredible, 
distinguished by nothing particularly lofty in sentiment 
or morality. They display as a rule very little power of 
invention. Yet they are in some respects of real impor- 
88 


POPULAR CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 89 


tance in that they show a craving after the miraculous 
which is astonishing to us, and they contain material 
which became a most important part of medieval Chris- 
tianity. Without the Apocryphal Gospels and Acts it is 
hardly possible to understand a gallery of old masters, 
or a Lady Chapel in a cathedral, or even a stained glass 
window with representations of the Twelve Apostles. 
Nor are some generally received beliefs of the Church 
comprehensible without them. 


The Protevangelium 

The very natural desire to know more of the birth and 
childhood of the Lord was gratified at an early date by 
what is called the Protevangelium, attributed to James, 
the Lord’s brother. In its present form or forms it may 
be comparatively late, but parts were evidently known to 
Justin Martyr in the middle of the second century. From 
this Protevangelium we learn that the Virgin Mary was 
the daughter of Joachim and Anna; that her high destiny 
was known to her parents who committed her to the care 
of the High Priest. She was brought up in the Temple, 
where the Annunciation took place. When the time came 
to choose a husband for her the suitors brought rods. 
That of Joseph, an elderly widower, budded. The Saviour 
was born in a grotto at Bethlehem, and a heavenly light 
appeared to announce the event. Salome, who would not 
believe that a virgin could bear a child, was punished by 
her arm seeming to be on fire and separated from her 
body. She was healed when she took the infant Saviour 
in her arms. It seems to be implied that Mary was a 
virgin not only before but after the birth of her Divine 
Son. This is enough to indicate how much pious belief 
owes to the imaginative literature of the early Church; 
and most of this is Gnosticism, imperfectly removed or 
concealed by Catholic adapters. When one reads the 


90 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Protevangelium one appreciates the dignified restraint of 
the stories of the infancy of Jesus in Matthew and Luke. 


Gospel of Thomas 

The childhood of Jesus is related in the Gospel of 
Thomas. Here we have miracle after miracle, some 
trivial, some malicious; and when it is evident that the 
writers knew the New Testament, this is the more re- 
markable. The child Jesus makes clay sparrows into 
living ones. He withers the arm of the schoolmaster when 
He would strike him. Mary and Joseph remonstrate at 
the vindictive miracles of their omnipotent Child. Jesus 
knows all things in His infancy: He does not advance in 
wisdom, and certainly not in favour with man. There is 
also legendary material about the Lord after the Resur- 
rection. In the recently discovered Gospel of Peter, a 
fragment relating to the Passion and Resurrection, 
Gnosticism is seen in the remark that Jesus hung on the 
Cross “as though he had no pain.” ‘Three figures came 
forth from the Tomb; the height of two reached the 
heavens, but one was higher than the heavens. In the 
Gospel of Nicodemus there is a description of “the har- 
rowing of Hell,” which so excited medieval imagination. 


Apocryphal Acts 

The Twelve Apostles were a fruitful field for the inven- 
tive powers, and the most impossible legends are found 
in the Acts, some of which found their way into the serv- 
ices of the Church. A special collect was actually com- 
pesed for the first prayer book of Edward VI (1549), 
alluding to “‘Andrew’s sharp and painful death upon the 
cross.” This was altered in 1552 to one speaking of his 
ready obedience to the call of Christ. 


Clementine Recognitions 


Naturally the legends of Peter are the most conspicu- 
ous; and the most interesting appears in the so-called 


POPULAR CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 91 


Recognitions of Clement. Here we have all the materials 
of the common romance of a family long parted being 
once more united by the recognition of lost parents, 
brothers, and sisters. The story is that Clement, who 
had come from Rome to Syria by the advice of Bar- 
nabas to see Peter and learn about Jesus, was a relative 
of the emperor, and the son of Faustinianus and Mat- 
tidia. He had two twin brothers, Faustus and Faustinus, 
older than himself. His mother and two brothers had 
left Rome by reason of a vision, and had disappeared. 
Faustinianus had gone in search of them and also van- 
ished; and Clement was left alone, and had reached the 
age of 32. The story relates how Peter brings the whole 
family together. Faustinianus, it goes on to say, is at 
first hard to convince. Simon Magnus suddenly appears, 
having given Faustinianus his own appearance, much to 
Simon’s discomfiture; for Faustinianus, looking like 
Simon, declares the magician to be an impostor. Of 
course Peter restores the old man to his proper shape and 
baptises him. 


Acts of Peter 

In the Acts of Peter in Rome there is the popular legend 
that when persecution threatened, the Lord appeared to 
Peter as the apostle was starting from the city. Peter 
said to his Master, Domine quo Vadis? ‘The Lord re- 
plied, ‘I go to Rome to be crucified.” Peter returned to 
suffer. But this beautiful story did not satisfy the appe- 
tite for the marvellous. Here is an example of what was 
appreciated. Peter is refused admission to the home at 
Rome where Simon Magus lodged. 

And Peter looked and saw a great dog, bound with a 
mighty chain, and he went and let him loose. And the 
dog received a man’s voice and said, “What willest thou 
that I should do, thou servant of the mysterious living 


92 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


God?” And Peter said, ‘“‘Go in and say to Simon in the 
midst of his company, ‘Peter saith Come out in public: 
for I am come to Rome for thy sake, wretch and cor- 
rupter of the minds of the simple.’” And the dog ran 
and went in, and burst into the midst of Simon and his 
friends, and standing with his forefeet off the ground said 
in a loud voice: ‘Thou Simon, Peter servant of Christ 
stands at the door and says, ‘Come out in public; for I 
am come to Rome for thy sake, wretch and corrupter of 
the minds of the simple.’” And Simon hearing this and 
beholding this incredible sight ceased from the words by 
which he was seducing the audience, and they all won- 
dered. (Act Pet., Ch. IX.) 


Acts of Philip 

The Acts of Philip are even more extravagant. Philip 
goes to Athens and confounds the philosophers. They 
send for the High Priest who comes from Jerusalem with 
five hundred scribes. The High Priest rushes at Philip, 
who promptly blinds him and the five hundred scribes. 
The High Priest becomes abusive and Philip speaks thus 
to him: 

“Lo I will pray God that he may come and make him- 
self manifest before thee and the five hundred, and before 
all these who are present; and maybe thou wilt behave 
and repent. But if thou remainest to the end in thine 
unbelief, a wonderful thing will happen to thee which 
shall be spoken of from generation to generation. For 
thou shalt go down quick into hell before all these be- 
holders, because thou continuest unbelieving; and because 
thou seekest to turn this multitude from the true life.” 

Then Jesus descends from heaven, and Philip is hailed 
“O Philip, once Son of Thunder, but now of Compassion.” 
The bystanders ask Philip to kill the High Priest. The 
apostle replies ““Render not evil for evil.” The apostle 


POPULAR CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 93 


says to Jesus, “Zabarthan, Sabathabat, bramanouch, come 
quick.” At these magic words the earth opens and the 
High Priest sinks to his knees. As he still remains 
obdurate he sinks to his middle, then to his neck. Seeing 
that he is hopeless, Philip lets the earth swallow him, and 
he disappears. The five hundred are healed of their 
blindness. All believe, and all ends happily. 

On his way to Greece, according to another story, 
Philip, accompanied by Mariamne who prepared the salt 
for the Lord’s Supper, “but Martha ministered to the 
multitude and toiled much,” met a leopard and a he-goat 
who were given the power of human speech. Philip, 
Bartholomew, and Mariamne, with the he-goat and the 
leopard, come to the city of the Serpent worshippers. As 
Philip is being crucified, he resolves to destroy the city, 
despite the remonstrances of the Apostle John and of 
Jesus Himself. The city is destroyed, but is restored by 
the power of Christ. Philip dies on the cross, and Bar- 
cholomew goes elsewhere, and later dies a martyr on 
the cross. 


Acts of Thomas 

The Acts of Thomas take us to India, and contain the 
well-known story of Judas-Thomas, the carpenter, being 
ordered to build a palace for the king. He says he will 
do it in the winter, though summer is the usual time for 
building. When the king comes to see the palace, he 
finds that Thomas has supported poor people, whose 
prayers will provide the king a mansion in heaven. A 
decidedly Gnostic extract denouncing marriage may be 
given as illuminating. ‘Thomas is asked to bless the 
king’s son and his bride. He does so, and all retire. 

‘“‘And the bridegroom raised the curtain of the bride- 
chamber to bring in the bride; and he saw the Lord Jesus 
having the appearance of Judas-Thomas, who had just 


94 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


gone forth, after blessing them, and he said: ‘Wert not 
thou the first to go out? How is itI find thee here?’ And 
the Lord said: ‘I am not Judas, who is Thomas, I am his 
brother.’ And the Lord sat on the bed, and ordered them 
to sit on chairs and he said .. .” 

Then the Saviour delivers a discourse on the incon- 
veniences of the married life, its anxieties, bad children, 
and so on, in words which resemble those of some of the 
ascetic fathers of the fifth century. 

Enough has been quoted to illustrate these Acts; and 
it is remarkable how often the apostles’ place is taken by 
Jesus Himself. They show how insatiable was the desire 
of the marvellous on the part of the pious reader in very 
primitive times. One more book of Acts, however, may 
be quoted because it illustrates the fascination of martyr 
stories and contains some very curious illustrations of life 
in Asia Minor in the first century. 


Acts of Paul and Thecla 

These are the ancient Acts of Paul and Thecla. Ones- 
iphorus, his sons Simmias and Zeno, and his wife, Lectra, 
desire to entertain Paul at Iconium and they go to meet 
him by the royal (or imperial) road, which goes to Lystra. 
They recognise Paul by Titus’ description of him. “A 
short man, bald headed, bandy-legged, healthy looking, 
with his eyebrows meeting each other, inclined to be red- 
haired, of gracious presence.” He abides in their house. 
Whilst Paul preaches Thecla, daughter of Theoclea and 
betrothed to Thamuris, listens from a neighbouring win- 
dow. When Paul is imprisoned for preaching against 
marriage, Thecla bribes the jailor with a golden hand- 
mirror to admit her to the prison. Paul is scourged and 
expelled from the city and Thecla is ordered to be burned. 
She is saved by a violent storm, finds Paul, who has been 
praying for her, and begs to be his companion. The pru- 


POPULAR CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 95 


dent apostle declines the responsibility of so beautiful an 
associate; but promises to baptise her if she will be 
patient. In the meantime ‘Queen Tryphzna’’ takes 
Thecla to her house, and treats her as a daughter. Once 
more Thecla is exposed to death, this time to the beasts. 
All the women of the city are on her side and cry out 
“Unholy Judgment” when she is brought into the arena. 

“Now Thecla was received from the hand of Tryphzna 
and was unclothed, but received a girdle, and she was 
thrown to the beasts. And lions and bears were sent 
against her. And a savage lioness ran to her and crouched 
at her feet. And the multitude of the women cried out 
greatly. And a bear rushed at her, and the lioness ran 
forward and rent the bear. Then a lion of Alexander’s 
who had been trained to attack men came against her, 
and the lioness grappled with the lion and was killed. 
And the women grieved greatly that her helper the 
lioness was dead. Then water full of seals (possibly 
crocodiles) was brought into the arena and Thecla threw 
herself in ‘in the name of Christ’ saying, ‘I baptise 
myself.’ ” 

The whole story is a mixture of accurate detail and 
fiction. There was a queen Tryphena; and the initial 
description of Paul is remarkably probable. 


Legends illustrate popular Christianity 

These legends may seem unworthy of serious consid- 
eration but are in truth as important as any dry and 
learned treatise. They show what manner of people 
many of the first believers were, and how great was their 
credulity. Though of Gnostic origin the popularity of 
these tales is proved by the fact that they are in Greek, 
Latin, Syriac, Coptic, and other languages. In time they 
are not far removed from the New Testament. In spirit 
they are as far apart as possible. There are occasionally 


96 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


prayers of some beauty and a few really Christian senti- 
ments; but, in general, the tone is not much superior to 
the rude language in which they are related. Their value 
is the light they throw on the average Christian belief for 
some centuries; and warn us against the assumption that 
primitive Christianity was necessarily free from super- 
stition. It redounds greatly to the credit of the leaders 
of the Church that they did not encourage these pro- 
ductions. On the contrary they condemned them and did 
their best to confine their people to the recognised Scrip- 
tures of the Church. As early as Ap. 170 we find 
Sarapion, Bishop of Antioch, trying to suppress the Gos- 
pel of Peter. The few catalogues of Scripture have warn- 
ings against heretical books. At the end of the fifth cen- 
tury Pope Gelasius issued a decree against them. And 
this was not simply because they were heretical, but were 
foolish and frivolous and unworthy of the Gospel. The 
appearance of these Gospels and Acts did not a little to 
fix the Canon of the New Testament, even the most doubt- 
iul books of which are incomparably superior to anything 
in the larger body of literature which the Church refused 
to accept. 


ae ee = 


CHAPTER X 
EDUCATION IN RELIGION 


Education in ancient times 

To understand primitive Christianity it is desirable to 
ascertain how the converts were prepared for their con- 
test with the world. For this purpose, before entering 
upon Christian education, it is necessary to discover how 
people were educated in the pagan world at large, and 
also in Judaism, in order to understand what was the 
general background of the cultured heathen, as well as 
how the Jew was trained to understand and to maintain 
an almost similar religion. 


Roman education practical 

Roman education was severely practical. The young 
patrician was exercised in the two duties which befitted 
his rank; he was destined to be a soldier and a politi- 
cian, and he learned to be the one in the Campus Martius 
and the other by attending the debates of the Senate. As 
it was incumbent on him when he grew up to plead the 
rights of his dependents (clzentes), he had to study law, 
and as he would have to perform in some way or other 
the duties of a priest he was obliged to learn the ritual by 
which the gods were placated. The use of arms and the 
study of law, religion, and politics were the necessary 
equipment of a gentleman; and, in addition, no people 
were more expert in managing their property to advantage 
than the Roman aristocracy. Art, literature, philosophy, 


97 


98 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


and the humanities generally, were considered to be the 
province of Greeks, slaves, and the inferior races of 
mankind. 


Interest in Greek culture 

This prevailed till the close of the second Punic War, 
when the leaders in Roman society began to take a serious 
interest in the learning of Greece. From this time for- 
ward the gentler arts began to be cultivated with avidity, 
and by the fall of the Republic the most prominent Ro- 
mans gloried in being educated men, and eagerly attended 
the great philosophical schools, especially that of Athens. 
At the same time the teaching of the young was generally 
in the hands of slaves, whose value was greatly enhanced 
if they had been highly educated. The modern world has 
still good reason to deplore this fact. The Greeks had 
long been an educated people, but education, as organ- 
ised on modern lines, began with the Macedonian con- 
querors of Egypt. The Ptolemies made Alexandria with 
its libraries, museums, zoological gardens, paid teachers, 
etc., into something resembling a university city. Like 
many universities, its success in commentating on litera- 
ture was more conspicuous than in production of original 
work. The work of the Alexandrians, however, was very 
valuable in developing first Judaism, and then Chris- 
tianity, as both religions looked for their authority to 
ancient books requiring explanations, and soon began to 
treat their Bible as the ancient Greeks had their Homer. 


Education widespread, and mainly theoretical 

By the beginning of the Christian era education had 
become widespread. Every important Roman was well 
acquainted with Greek, and employed it freely. The 
great classical writers of antiquity were already recog- 
nised as the standards, and grammar, or what we should 


EDUCATION IN RELIGION 99 


term literature, was the prime object of a youth’s train- 
ing. The art of declamation, of correct expression, of 
writing essays was insistently inculcated. This must be 
borne in mind if we would understand many Christian 
documents, notably the Apologies. They are the pro- 
duction of men trained to be rhetoricians. The philoso- 
phers also had their part in education, especially in moral 
duties, and in Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho we have an 
interesting example of what some expected their pupils 
to know before attending their courses. The Pythagorean 
to whom Justin applied would not take him as a pupil 
because he had not studied music, astronomy, and 
geometry. Rich people often engaged a philosopher to 
act the part of a tutor or chaplain to the family. 


Jewish education 

The Jews from time immemorial, as we see in the 
Bible, made the education of their youth in religion a 
matter of the greatest importance. It was fixed by law 
when the boy should begin to study the Law, and when 
he should be under the obligation to observe it. Schools 
were early established, and according to tradition Jesus 
attended a school as a child. The fact that He was dis- 
covered sitting at the feet of the doctors in the Temple 
both hearing them and asking them questions, is a proof 
that youths were encouraged to go to the rabbis. Paul 
was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and Josephus 
tells us that, so extraordinary was his own progress, that 
by the time he was fourteen priests consulted him on 
points of Law. Jewish education was thorough, and in- 
volved a knowledge of Hebrew—already long a dead 
language; but in Jerusalem it was very narrow and some 
of the most honoured doctors refused even to learn Greek. 
The Hellenistic Jew probably received a Gentile educa- 
tion as well as one in his peculiar religion. 


100 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Educated Christians—Origen’s training as a boy 

The Christians were not as a rule wise after the flesh, 
but their best literature was produced by men at least as 
well educated as their contemporaries. ‘These had re- 
ceived the usual instruction, and some like Tertullian, 
Cyprian, Minutius Felix, and others, were trained lawyers. 
Others, Justin Martyr, for example, were styled philoso- 
phers. Clement of Alexandria, and Hippolytus of Rome, 
were very widely read men of letters. All confessed that 
Origen was a prodigy of learning. What Eusebius says 
of Origen may be taken as a specimen of what the best 
Christian education was at the close of the second century. 
It must be remembered that Leonides, Origen’s father, 
was a devout Christian who ended his life as a martyr 
for the faith. He made his son go through the entire 
course of the encyclical study pursued by every educated 
Greek, and take it seriously, and also instructed him in 
Scripture, making him learn and repeat portions of it 
every day. 


The New Testament in a sense a manual 

In a sense the New Testament is a manual of Christian 
instruction. The theory that the Gospels were originally 
oral has been long discarded; but as they now are they 
appear admirably suited to instruct converts about Jesus. 
The fact that the Apostle Paul wished his letters to be 
read in public shows that he considered them suitable for 
instruction, and many of his precepts are cast in a form 
perhaps intentionally easy to commit to memory. 


Its moral instruction 

It appears at least possible that the lists of virtues and 
vices in the New Testament, e.g., our Lord’s words “Out 
of the heart of man proceed envy,” etc., etc., St. Paul’s 
“The works of the flesh are these, fornication,” etc., and 


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EDUCATION IN RELIGION 101 


“The fruit of the Spirit is love, Joy, peace,” etc., are not 
rhetorical but intended as lists to be committed to 
memory of what to seek and avoid. That there were such 
in early times is seen in the frequent repetitions of the 
Two Ways. St. Matthew’s Gospel seems further to indi- 
cate that the passages of the Old Testament which proved 
that Jesus had been foretold by the prophets were ar- 
ranged and collected in manuals of Testimonia or evi- 
dences. The Catholic Epistles, II Peter, James and I 
John, are moral treatises written for believers generally as 
manuals for instruction. This would indicate that the 
teachers of the Church paid attention to the inculcation 
of moral precepts indicating what the Christian character 
should be. It was also realised that instruction to be 
profitable must be progressive, that there were truths for 
which beginners were unfit, and that they must be treated 
as children and fed accordingly. 


The sermon 

The Christians took over from the Jews the practice 
of reading the Law and the prophets and expounding them 
to their congregations, and thus the sermon early came 
into prominence. In fact the Church was from the first 
a school. The presbyters who were to be most “hon- 
oured” were those who laboured in word and doctrine. 
The traditions or deposit of faith was to be carefully 
handed down and committed to faithful men. Edification, 
or building up, on which so much stress is laid, is merely 
another word for education. 


Preparation for baptism | 

In early times, according to the Acts of the Apostles, 
no sooner did a man believe than he was baptised, some- 
times with his whole household. This meant that to con- 
fess Christ was enough, however imperfect the knowledge 
of Him might be. But this could not be expected to last; 


102 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


and it soon became necessary to put candidates for bap- 
tism through a course in which they learned the truths 
of the Faith. 


Instruction of Catechumens 

The Order of Catechumens, or people under instruc- 
tion for baptism, now makes its appearance, and with it 
a regular Christian system of education. The first method 
was by attendance at the beginning part of the service of 
worship, where they heard the Scriptures read and ex- 
pounded. They were thus accustomed to see believers 
worship, but debarred from witnessing the celebration of 
their mysteries. This opens the entire question of the 
so-called disciplina arcani (a purely modern expression) 
and reserve in the matter of imparting the truths of 
religion. Of course the idea that there are two Chris- 
tianities, one for the spiritual and another for the igno- 
rant, is a fundamental characteristic of Gnosticism. ‘To 
admit this would be to surrender the whole catholic posi- 
tion. But is it wise to communicate all an enlightened 
Christian knows, or thinks he knows, to the weak brother 
who may thereby be led astray by misunderstanding what 
is told him? This perplexed the teachers of the third 
century, especially at Alexandria, and is an even greater 
difficulty to-day, now that Higher Criticism is making the 
right interpretation of Scripture more difficult and many 
official dogmas are tacitly allowed to fall into the back- 
ground. The general principle adopted was that no doc- 
trine of the Church might be kept back from believers 
but that certain explanations, especially when allegorical, 
must be accepted with discretion. 


Why Baptism is called Enlightenment 
But the doctrines of the Faith were not revealed to 
non-Christians in their entirety; and the postulant for 


EDUCATION IN RELIGION 103 


baptism went through a gradual process of initiation, 
before receiving the full meed of light at his baptism, 
which was called the enlightenment. The heathen were 
not allowed to share in all the doctrines of the Christians, 
lest they should profane them or turn them into ridicule. 


Later Roman “order” for baptism 

The ancient disciplina arcanti is indicated long after its 
spirit hac departed, in the order for baptism at Rome in 
the seventh and eighth centuries. The ordo or ceremonial 
of baptism as it was performed by the pope and the 
numerous clergy of Rome has all the appearance of bap- 
tism as it was administered to adults. The long prepara- 
tion of catechumens after their registration, the exorcisms, 
the daily advances they made during holy week till the 
creed was communicated to them (traditio symboli) with 
the Lord’s Prayer, to be repeated at baptism (redditio 
symbol); baptism being immediately followed by admis- 
sion to full communion. Perhaps already some of these 
rites had become formal; but they had a deep meaning 
in the earliest days. ‘Then a Christian was indeed an 
initiate, given the secret words and rites of his new order. 
This as we have seen was not originally part of baptism 
and the communication of secrets may possibly be due 
to the influence of the mysteries of other cults; but any- 
how, there was a disciplina arcant in the sense that some 
mysteries were reserved till the day of baptism, for which 
the candidates were prepared with scrupulous care. 


The Creed a means of instruction 

The Creed is a survival of the instruction of the cate- 
chumens. Originally, perhaps, it was the formula of 
baptism “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost.” Gradually the function of each Person was 
explained. But even now the Roman Church in its bap- 


104 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


tismal creed has preserved somewhat of the terseness of 
a very early form entrusted to candidates at baptism, far 
shorter than the so-called Apostles’ Creed which is in 
Latin Christendom the belief of the Church set forth for 
elementary instruction. In the East, as we learn from 
Eusebius of Cesarea at the Council of Nicea, and from 
Cyril of Jerusalem afterwards, it was more elaborate in 
character. 


The Catechetical School 

Christian education reached perhaps as high a level as 
it has ever attained to at Alexandria. There the prepara- 
tion of the catechumens became a veritable scientific 
experiment in religious education. ‘They were divided 
into classes according to their capacity and the most ad- 
vanced were under the superintendence of the head of the 
Catechetical School, generally the most famous scholar in 
the Christian world. Among the great names that of 
Origen stands pre-eminent, and we have a description of 
his method by the pen of St..Gregory the wonder worker 
(Thaumaturgus), the apostolic bishop of Cappadocia, 
who studied under Origen, not at Alexandria but at 
Cesarea in Palestine. He says that his teacher encour- 
aged the Socratic method, and asked questions as to 
reasoning and the meaning of words. Then he introduced 
the study of nature in Aristotelian fashion. The course 
he recommended began with geometry, then astronomy, 
then morals, and lastly Greek philosophy. He advised his 
pupils to read all philosophies except those of the atheists. 
He concludes by saying that Origen seemed specially 
chosen of God to interpret His prophets. 


Clement of Alexandria’s scheme of education 
Earlier, as has been indicated, Clement’s three works, 
the Exhortation, Pedagogus, and the Stromateis, sketched 


EDUCATION IN RELIGION 105 


out a scheme of education, and one can but wonder at the 
extraordinarily wide conception the great Alexandrians 
had of the highest Christian culture. In truth they were 
eminently humanistic. Clement possessed a less original, 
but more liberal mind than Origen, whose uncompromis- 
ing Christianity was decidedly ascetic. It has been 
rightly said that probably there is no nobler scheme of 
Christian education than his. Nor must it be forgotten 
that Alexandria was not the only Catechetical School; 
institutions like it were to be found at Antioch, Athens, 
and in the further East at Edessa and Nisibis. 


Cyril of Jerusalem’s catechetical lectures 

The lectures which Cyril of Jerusalem delivered as a 
priest during the Lent of about 347 may be taken as an 
example of what had been delivered long before to the 
catechumens. They do not impress one with being strik- 
ingly original but as thoroughly sensible discourses on 
practical religion. In the Catechetical Lectures, Cyril 
goes through the regular course of initiating his candi- 
dates into the sacramental mysteries. He teaches mo- 
rality, the use of Scripture, and leads up to the Creed 
and Lord’s Prayer. After Easter he gives the newly bap- 
tised five more Mystagogical Lectures. The merit of the 
lectures is that they are not remarkable but are an ex- 
cellent example of how a priest gave instruction in a 
church like that of Jerusalem to a congregation not spe- 
cially noted for its learning. 


Christians on the whole intelligent 

On the whole it appears that no effort was spared, at 
any rate in the cities of the East, to give the converts a 
careful and systematic training in the Faith and in the 
duties of those who professed it. The immense enthu- 
siasm which at a later date preachers like Gregory of 


106 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Nazianzus and John Chrysostom aroused, is evidence 
that the audiences at Constantinople and Antioch were 
intelligent and appreciative; and the interest, not always 
salutary, shown in ecclesiastical disputes in the most 
mysterious subjects by the multitude in the larger cities, 
is a proof that they had received some education in 
theology. In a word, the reproach which can be levelled 
against much of the Christianity of the fourth and fifth 
centuries is not that of ignorance, but that it was too 
much interested in theological problems and not enough 
in following the simpler rules of moral conduct. 


Se ae 


CHAPTER XI 


THE CHURCH PROSCRIBED BY LAW 


Christian property protected 

It is a strange paradox that the Christians were perse- 
cuted by the criminal and protected by the civil law of 
Rome. As clubs, benefit societies, owners of graveyards, 
even of places of worship, they could avail themselves of 
legal recognition. They could assemble without molesta- 
tion, perform funeral rites, and own churches. There was 
as a rule no reason why they should worship in secret. 
Tertullian can say, ‘we have filled your marketplaces, 
your houses, etc.,”” meaning that by the end of the second 
century it was a known fact that everywhere people were 
to be found living openly as Christians. It is not easy 
to recall an instance of the police dispersing congrega- 
tions, or hunting down persons suspected of being Chris- — 
tians, or of their breaking into the vast catacombs around 
the city of Rome. There were certainly churches in the 
time of the fiercest persecution of all, that of Diocletian, 
but though they were visited by the officials, and the 
priests were ordered to give up their Scriptures, there is 
not, though some were pulled down, any record of a 
world-wide destruction of Christian edifices. 


The religion of Christ was illegal 
On the other hand the Christian religion was so illegal 
that it would almost appear that in the eye of the law 
to have ever joined in it was punishable by death. It 
was an unlicensed religion; and to practise it was a crime. 
107 


108 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


The empire was on the whole tolerant, and its officials 
had no inducement to annoy peaceable citizens who paid 
their taxes and gave no trouble; but at any time the law 
could be put in motion, and once a prosecution com- 
menced, as is generally the case with legal procedure, 
there is no saying where it might end. 


Ancestral religions tolerated 

The policy of the empire was to respect the religion 
of every people. The Jews were assured of toleration. 
As a nation with an ancestral religion their worship was 
safe. No attempt was made to force Jews to abandon 
the Law, except possibly by Hadrian for a few years. The 
spirit of Antiochus Epiphanes was non-existent in Rome. 
Even new religions were also tolerated, but only on con- 
dition that they had been recognised by Law. ‘Let no 
one have gods by himself unless they have been publicly 
recognised” was a fundamental maxim. Christianity 
could not be considered illegal as long as it was regarded 
as a Jewish sect. The Jews might dislike its doctrines and 
raise disturbances about them, but this was no affair of 
the Roman authorities. It was a question of their law; 
and, as Gallio said, this was their business, not his. 
When Claudius heard that the Jews were rioting about 
Chrestus, as Suetonius informs us, he did not trouble to 
enquire who Chrestus was, but drove them all out of 
the city. 


Attitude of the Romans towards the Christians in Acts 
The attitude of the Romans to the Christian propa- 
ganda as described in Acts is a strong argument in favour 
of the historical accuracy of the book. The Jews, in the 
Opening chapters, are not represented as hostile to the 
new sect which accepted the Messiahship of Jesus, whose 
death was regarded by many as a mistake, if not a crime, 


THE CHURCH PROSCRIBED BY LAW 109 


on the part of the rulers. The priests, in conformity with 
the evidence both of Josephus and of the Talmud, were 
not fanatics, but men of the world, who had the disciples 
arrested, not because they hated their religion, but be- 
cause they appeared likely to become a nuisance. The 
death of Stephen was another matter: the Hellenistic 
Jews raised a disturbance in Jerusalem apparently at a 
time when there was no Roman authority in the city, and 
Stephen was stoned (Acts vi), whether after a formal 
trial, or in a riot, is uncertain. Here Saul appears as a 
fanatical persecutor with authority from the High Priest 
to arrest Jews who believed in Jesus at Damascus. This 
is unquestionably a difficulty till other evidence is forth- 
coming that the High Priest’s jurisdiction over other Jews 
authorised him to send to distant cities and arrest heretics. 
The martyrdom of James has every appearance of proba- 
bility. Agrippa, as king, had the jus gladiz, and as pro- 
fessedly a devout Jew and politically interested in secur- 
ing popularity in Jerusalem, he might have put to death 
a member of a suspected sect. (Acts xii, 1-2.) When we 
come to Paul the case is fairly plain. The Jews detested 
his liberal policy towards the Gentiles, and were deter- 
mined to bring him into disfavour with the Roman gov- 
ernment, which maintained a strictly impartial attitude. 
The purpose of the writer of Acts may be apologetic; but 
the description of Paul’s sufferings and trials is too typi- 
cal to be passed over. It will illustrate the attitude of the 
empire to the religion of the Jews. 


Persecution of Paul as a missionary 

On their first appearance in Asia Minor, Paul and 
Barnabas experienced the usual fate of missionaries of a 
new faith. First they were received, at least with interest, 
and at times with enthusiasm, and then expelled for caus- 
ing disturbances; when Paul was stoned at Lystra it was 


110 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


evidently in a riot (Acts xiv, 19-20). The first contact 
with the regular authorities was at Philippi. This was not 
due to the Jews: Paul had healed a girl with a spirit of 
divination, a clairvoyante as we should call her, and her 
proprietors had lost money thereby. So they trumped up 
a charge against Paul and Silas for having taught un- 
Roman customs in a “colony.” The magistrates beat and 
imprisoned them, but evidently on reflection did not be- 
lieve the charge. (Acts xvi, 16-40.) At Thessalonica it 
was the mob, excited by the Jews, who caused the riot. 
It was evidently the object of the idle crowd which loafed 
about the agora to drag the preachers out of Jason’s house 
and clamour to the city council for their punishment. 
Here again the officials acted with moderation. ‘They 
took bail of Jason for the good behaviour of his guests, 
who this time were explicitly charged with treason by 
proclaiming that Jesus was the Emperor—the Greek 
basileus is not here a king, but the rival of Cesar. 
(Acts xvii, 7.) At Corinth Gallio refused so much as to 
listen to the complaints of the Jews—if it were an affair 
affecting their religion, it was their business not his. 
(Acts xvili, 12-17.) The riot in the theatre at Ephesus 
was due to the new religion being injurious to trade; and 
no attempt was made to bring any definite charge against 
Paul and his companions. (Acts xix.) Finally, at Jeru- 
salem, the Jews carefully abstained from raising the ques- 
tion of Paul’s heterodoxy, and sought to involve him in 
the more dangerous charge of bringing Greeks within the 
sacred precincts of the Temple. (Acts xxi, 28.) Several 
chapters (xxi-xxvi) are devoted to proving that no re- 
sponsible person, Felix, Agrippa, or even Cesar, was pre- 
pared seriously to entertain this accusation. This shows 
that, at any rate till towards the middle of Nero’s reign, 
Paul, obnoxious as he was to the Jews, could not be pun- 
ished by the Roman authorities on the ground that he 


THE CHURCH PROSCRIBED BY LAW 111 


was a Christian. Paul, Barnabas, and Silas had much the 
Same experiences in the cities of the empire as John and 
Charles Wesiey in the eighteenth century had in England. 
By causing crowds to assemble they endangered public. 
peace, and compelled the magistrates to intervene. 


The Neronian persecution 

The persecution of Nero, alluded to in the famous 
passage in Tacitus, throws so important a light on the 
attitude of the law towards Christianity that it deserves 
careful attention. It must, however, be borne in mind 
that it does not furnish contemporary evidence, but re- 
flects the opinion of a writer who flourished more than a 
generation after the event. Nero, as is well known, was 
suspected of having caused the great fire of Rome, and 
sought to lay the blame on the newly discovered sect of 
the Christians. The fire at Rome was in a.D. 64, a few 
years after the birth of Tacitus. 


Tacitus’ testimony 

To stifle the report, Nero selected and punished the 
people popularly called Christians. They took their name 
from Christus who was put to death by the procurator 
Pilate, in the days of Tiberius. His death checked the 
superstition, but after a while it broke out again in Judea, 
and also in Rome, whither everything cruel and impure 
betakes itself and is practised. First those who openly 
professed themselves Christians were arrested, and on 
their information a great multitude was convicted, not as 
incendiaries, but as enemies of mankind. Nero opened 
his gardens to the public and entertained them with the 
tortures of these criminals, some of whom were set on fire 
and made to act as candles. The emperor even dressed 
himself like a coachman and mingled with the mob. The 
Christians got no more than they deserved, but all the 


112 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


same these executions, which had no public advantage, 
moved men to compassion. 

Here there is no mention of a judicial procedure against 
the Christians as such. They were punished unjustly as 
incendiaries. Such wretches deserved their fate for their 
unsocial attitude; but Tacitus does not say that their 
death was legal, rather the reverse. 


The suppression of the Bacchic worship in Rome 

In reading of this, the earliest persecution, one is in- 
stinctively reminded of the story of the suppression of 
the Bacchic Worship in Rome in B.c. 187. It was sud- 
denly discovered to be distinguished for its impurity and 
profanity, and the consuls arrested and punished multi. 
tudes. Posthumus, the Consul, addressed the Senate on 
the abomination of unclean, unauthorised foreign re- 
ligions. No doubt Nero’s agents worked up a similar 
scare about the new and dangerous Christian superstition 
which resulted in so much cruel bloodshedding. 


Pliny’s letter to Trajan 
Pliny’s famous letter to Trajan throws light on the 
judicial procedure, and perhaps gave a precedent for the 
future. Pliny the Younger was proconsul of Bithynia 
when he wrote to the emperor for instructions as to how 
to act in regard to Christians. He had never come across 
Christians before and was uncertain as to what to do. 
The points on which he sought the emperor’s advice were: 
(1) Is it allowable to take age into consideration? 
(2) Can pardon be given on repentance? 
(3) Can anyone be pardoned when he has ceased to 
be a Christian? 
(4) Is a man to be punished for being a Christian, or 
for crimes committed as a Christian? 
Then he described the procedure he had adopted: 


a ~~ ._ -" 


THE CHURCH PROSCRIBED BY LAW 113 


(1) Those who confessed, and refused to recant after 
three chances had been given, were sentenced to 
death. 

(2) Roman citizens were sent to Rome. 

At this juncture an anonymous paper (libellus) arrived 
full of names. 

(3) Those who denied that they were Christians were 
set free on praying to the gods, making a liba- 
tion to the emperor’s statue, and cursing Christ. 
No Christian could be induced to do this. 

(4) Those who said they had ceased to be Christians 
and submitted to the same test were set free. 

These said there was nothing criminal in the re- 
ligion. They met and sang hymns to Christ, 
and took an oath not to commit murder, theft, 
adultery, etc. They were accustomed to as- 
semble for a meal, but gave this up when the 
emperor’s edict against clubs appeared. 

On this Pliny tortured two maids (ancille) called min- 
istrants (ministre) (slaves could only give evidence under 
torture), and could find that Christianity was nothing 
worse than a base superstition. It was, however, very 
popular; but Pliny’s leniency had had a good result. The 
temples were once more thronged and the farmers were 
doing well, now that they could sell their hay for the 
sacrificial victims. Pliny’s advice was—give the people 
a chance (penitentie locus) of clearing themselves of the 
imputation of being Christians. 


Trajan’s reply 

Trajan approved Pliny’s procedure. It was not one 
for hard and fast rules. Anonymous accusations should 
be disregarded; and there are to be no police investiga- 
tions as to who are Christians. 

These rules were long observed. There was no inquisi- 


114 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


torial system; the accused were always given the chance 
to recant; the magistrates as a rule tried to avoid blood- 
shed. Even torture was applied with the idea of saving 
the lives of Christians by making them offer sacrifice. 
By a strict law every one who entered the Church was a 
criminal and punishable with death; to allow him the 
chance to escape was leniency. 


The Church dreaded as a secret society 

Reading between the lines of the very brief state- 
ments of Tacitus and Pliny we can see why this 
was so. The Christian Church was suspected by the 
authorities to be a secret, and by the public to be an 
immoral, society. It was thought to be an enemy to 
civilisation, what we should call anarchistic, and there- 
fore quite capable of plotting to set Rome on fire. It 
resolutely refused to do the customary honour to the 
statue of the emperor. This worship of the genius of 
Rome and of the emperor was a great means of uniting 
all the peoples under the Roman dominion. The Jews 
had incurred great odium for refusing it: but after all 
they were a nation rather than a religion, and their cus- 
toms deserved respect. The Christians on the other hand 
were a sect, well organised and meeting in secret, accused 
of withdrawing more and more people from their loyalty 
to the state. They were suspected, much as we in war- 
time suspect people who refuse to rise at the sound of the 
national anthem or to salute the flag. But the Roman 
government was too wise to crowd the prisons and scaf- 
folds with people whose conduct was harmless, if their 
views were peculiar. 


Lyons and Vienne 
The next illustration shall be the famous persecution 
of Lyons end Vienne, as it shows how popular supersti- 


THE CHURCH PROSCRIBED BY LAW 115 


tion could provoke the authorities to acts of ferocious 
cruelty. It is related in the well-known letter of the 
Church of those cities to that of Smyrna. Here it will be 
necessary to dwell not so much on the heroic self-sacrifice 
of the martyrs as on the more legal aspect; but it is a 
story which cannot fail to arouse our emotion. 

The symptoms which heralded the coming troubles was 
that the Christians became suddenly unpopular. They 
were driven from the public baths, and no one would 
admit them to his house. If any appeared the rabble 
insulted them, stoning them and beating them as enemies. 

At last the magistrate (Greek chiliarch) came to the 
city. Vettius Epagathus, a man of position, protested. 
The governor asked him if he were a Christian, and on 
his confessing that he was, he was sentenced to death 
(‘promoted to be a martyr,” says the letter). The 
leaders (the proto-martyrs) confessed the Faith eagerly 
and were condemned. ‘Ten, ‘‘unprepared and undisci- 
plined” for the struggle, recanted. There was a regular 
inquisition. ‘The heathen slaves of Christians were ex- 
amined and forced under threat of torture to accuse their 
masters of devouring children and as guilty of incestuous 
connections, and of things ‘‘so vile that we cannot believe 
anyone has ever done them.” At this the populace, even 
those who had previously favoured the Christians, went 
mad with indignation; and horrible scenes in the arena 
followed, the Christians being put to unspeakable tor- 
tures, their leader in endurance being the slave girl Blan- 
dina. It is in truth a terrible story of the most savage 
cruelty, as well as of the noblest heroism, and the truly 
Christian spirit displayed by the martyrs. 


Procedure in this persecution 
Apart from its dramatic character and the vivid de- 
scription given in the letter to Smyrna, the persecution 


116 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


at Lyons and Vienne is important as illustrating the pro- 
cedure of the Roman law. The hellish cruelty of the 
executions was, to judge from other martyrdoms, illegal, 
as was the refusal to give up the bodies of those who had 
been executed to their friends. But the judicial pro- 
cedure, so far as it was regular, was much the same as 
Pliny’s, sixty years or so earlier. The persecution was 
in A.D. 177. The persistent Christians, the qus fate- 
bantur of Tacitus, were condemned on admitting they 
belonged to the Church. Those who recanted were re- 
leased. Slaves were tortured, or threatened with torture, 
to give evidence. Roman citizens were kept till the em- 
peror should decide their case. The interesting point is 
that this persecution was due to judicial action, spurred 
on by the fanaticism of the mob, who believed that the 
Christians were the vilest of mankind. 


Later persecution 

The great persecutions of the third century by Decius, 
Valerian, and Diocletian, all followed the same procedure. 
They differed from the earlier in being not so much popu- 
lar as political. The object of the government was to 
stamp out Christianity as a danger to the state, and to do 
so by an organized system of repression. These persecu- 
tions were not local as the earlier ones had been, or de- 
pendent upon the feeling of the crowd or the caprice of 
the magistrate. They applied everywhere, and the ma- 
chinery of the law was put in force throughout the em- 
pire. But even then there was no need for fresh legisla- 
tion, and the edicts were literally edicts, in the sense that 
they were declarations as to how the law would be en- 
forced. Decius set the precedent of requiring everybody 
to sacrifice to the gods and to the genius of the emperor 
of Rome. This was enough. Every Christian must nec- 
essarily be discovered; if he sacrificed, it was proof that 


THE CHURCH PROSCRIBED BY LAW Ruy 


_he was not a Christian. If he refused, he was confessedly 
guilty of a capital crime, which might be enforced or 
relaxed by imprisonment or loss of civil rights. If he 
could be induced to comply with the orders of the govern- 
ment, he was at once set free. The instigators of the 
Diocletian persecution were the philosophers, who fa- 
voured the revived paganism of the age, and the Chris- 
tians were tested by their willingness to surrender their 
sacred Scriptures. But the principle was the same: 
Christianity was illegal, and its practice was connived at. 
As a rule the ferocity of the law made it unworkable, like 
that of the penal laws in England against Roman Catho- 
lics in the eighteenth century, and the Christians were 
seldom molested. But, till the days of Constantine, every 
one who accepted the Gospel did so at the risk of his life. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE SPIRIT OF MARTYRDOM 


Advantages offered by the Church 

“And Peter began to say to him, Behold we have left 
all and followed thee. Jesus said, Verily, I say to thee, 
there is no one who hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, 
or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and 
the gospel’s, but he shall receive a hundred-fold now 
in this time, houses, etc., with persecution, and in the 
world to come everlasting life. But many who are last, 
shall be first, and the first last.” (Mark x, 29-31.) 

These words of Jesus were literally fulfilled when a man 
became a Christian, he entered a society which gave him 
most things he had abandoned. He was not left to starve, 
and he found people to take the place of the family he had 
abandoned. The one drawback was ‘“‘with persecutions.” 


Was persecution a deterrent? 

Was this a drawback in the sense that it made people 
unwilling to join the Church? It undoubtedly kept many 
luke-warm and interested would-be proselytes outside; 
but to many the prospect of persecution was an actual 
inducement to embrace Christianity. The reason is not 
far to seek. In the first place, any intense love makes 
those who feel it desirous to prove it by sacrifice. This the 
Christians unquestionably felt for their Master. Many 
therefore sought, and rejoiced in, martyrdom as a proof 
of their devotion. They believed that no sacrifice was so 
acceptable to God as death by martyrdom, and the reward 

118 


THE SPIRIT OF MARTYRDOM 119 


of those who endured manfully for Christ was sure. The 
Church did everything to encourage the steadfastness of 
the martyr. From the time of his arrest he was the object 
of constant solicitation. ‘The prisons were besieged by 
Christians anxious to behold the man or woman about to 
die for the faith. If he remained steadfast, and witnessed 
to Christ by his death, he was a martyr. He knew he 
would be buried, if possible, with every honour; that the 
faithful would spend nights at prayer at his tomb, and, 
above all, that at his death angels would convey his soul 
to Paradise. 


Confessors 

If the death penalty were remitted, despite his refusal 
to worship idols, he attained to the lesser dignity of a 
confessor, and would be regarded by the Church with the 
highest veneration as one bearing in his body the marks 
of the Lord Jesus. On the other hand, if he failed in the 
trial, he was irretrievably disgraced in the eyes of his 
brethren, before whom he knew he could never lift up his 
head again. He had, then, both kinds of inducements, of 
hope and of fear, to persevere to the end. 


Dulness of ordinary life 

Another less noble incentive for people to become Chris- 
tians and then to risk their lives, was a factor which is 
scarcely suspected by most people today. But for the 
rise of Christianity the first centuries of our era would be 
the dreariest in history. Few realise how peaceful, how 
well administered, how carefully organised, life was under 
the Empire. The entire Roman army, which sufficed to 
keep the Roman world in tranquillity, was less numerous 
than the fighting force of a single Balkan state today. 
When Rome contained some two millions of inhabitants 
there were not five hundred thousand men under arms in 
the entire Empire, and these were dispersed in a thin line 


120 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


along its enormous frontier. In many places there was 
hardly a soldier to be seen. Civilians were forbidden to 
carry weapons; the armies were recruited mainly from the 
more barbarous frontiermen. Goths, Scythians, Arabs, 
who were born outside the Roman territory, were accepted 
in the legions. Despite the good government of most em- 
perors,—and the tyranny of the worst seldom extended 
far beyond their entourage,—trade was declining, land 
going out of cultivation, and population shrinking. 
There was very little literature produced; our material 
for the history of the period is but scanty, and when the 
law often confined a man to residence in the city in which 
he was born there were few openings for adventure. 
There were no discoveries in science, and no new lands 
were being opened up. The tendency was to keep every 
one in the same place and at the occupation to which he 
was born, and, as taxation was becoming heavier every 
day, life was often a descent from comparative affluence 
to utter poverty. Seldom, if ever, can it have been less 
interesting to the average man. Christianity supplied 
an object for existence. It set up a moral standard worth 
striving after; it gave men an institution in the Church 
worth working for with pride; it held out hopes of happi- 
ness hereafter, and filled its people with a sense of 
romance. It was a warfare when all around was dreary, 
purposeless peace; and it was something worth dying a 
hero’s death to defend. 


Literature of martyrdom 

To understand the spirit of martyrdom, a variety of 
documents relating to the subject must be studied and, 
so much romance hangs round the tales of sufferings for 
the faith, that it is necessary to exercise much discrimi- 
nation. Those chosen here are of undoubted antiquity, 
even if their genuineness is disputed. 


THE SPIRIT OF MARTYRDOM 121 


Ignatius : 

The first and earliest are the Epistles of Ignatius, who, 
in the reign of Trajan, was sent from Antioch, where he 
was bishop, to be exposed to the beasts at Rome. A long 
controversy has raged round these letters, with the result 
that the seven mentioned by Eusebius are now generally 
recognised as genuine. Ignatius expresses his burning 
desire for martyrdom in his letter to the Roman Church. 
As in I Clement there is no allusion to its bishop. The 
Roman Christians are wealthy and influential, and Ig- 
natius fears they may obtain a pardon for him. In lan- 
guage, which would seem exaggerated, were it not for the 
circumstances, the prospective martyr entreats them to 
allow him to win the honor of dying for Christ. If the 
beasts are unwilling, he will coax them to kill him, etc., 
etc. Nothing can be more characteristic of a desire for 
martyrdom which often was carried to excess. The 
Church had to exercise the greatest care to prevent fanati- 
cal and suicidal martyrdoms, and to stop the zeal of 
fanatics whose imprudence forced the heathen to perse- 
cute the Church. The title of martyr was in fact most 
sparingly bestowed. Even a pope who had been put to 
death did not obtain it till after investigation. 


Martyrdom of Polycarp 

The Martyrdom of Polycarp at Smyrna is remarkable 
for the evident desire shown to make it a parallel to the 
story of the Crucifixion, and for the grace and dignity 
displayed by the ancient saint, and the excessive ma- 
lignity of the Jews towards the Christians on the occa- 
sion. The whole chapter of Eusebius’ history which 
quotes the letter of the Church of Smyrna to that of 
Philomelium, should be read. At so early a date (A.D. 
156) it is interesting to notice that the relics of a martyr 
were already prized, for after saying that they insisted 


122 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


on burning the body to ashes, fearing that the Christians 
would worship Polycarp instead of Christ, and indig- 
nantly repudiating the idea, the letter goes on to say, 
“We gathered up his bones, which are more prized than 
precious stones and more approved than gold, and placed 
them where it was suitable. There, when it is possible, 
the Lord will permit us to assemble in exultation and joy 
and celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom, both in 
memory of those who have contended before us, and for 
the discipline and encouragement of those who shall here- 
after contend.” 


Martyr Spirit at Lyons and Vienne 

The spirit of martyrdom is displayed in its most fa- 
vourable light in the account of the sufferings at Lyons 
and Vienne already alluded to: in this, as will be shown, 
there is a conspicuous absence of an arrogance, too often 
displayed in some of the later martyrdoms. 

The martyrs of Lyons seem to have been more brutally 
treated than elsewhere; but the way in which the story 
is told is devoid of bitterness, and the following points 
deserve attention. Great fear was felt lest any of those 
brought before the judges should fall away at the last, 
as the tortures were not merely designed to make them 
deny Christ, but to implicate the others in the charges 
popularly made against the Christians. Some who had 
denied Christ and offered sacrifice were again put to the 
torture, as was Biblias, evidently a slave, but she this 
time refused to say anything, and seemed in a deep sleep 
under her tortures. When she recovered from her stupor 
she confessed herself a Christian and was added to the 
order of martyrs (lit., the clergy, clerus, of martyrs). 
The sufferings of those who remained steadfast had the 
effect of inspiring many who had renounced the faith. 
Some, when about to obtain the release, declared them- 


THE SPIRIT OF MARTYRDOM 123 


selves to be Christians, and were beheaded if they were 
Roman citizens. The protagonists were the slave girl 
Blandina, and a boy named Ponticus, aged fifteen. They 
were tortured in the arena in the most terrible manner, 
Blandina being the very last to perish, encouraging the 
others to persevere as she hung on her cross. She was 
regarded by the sufferers not as a slave but as a well- 
born (eugenes) mother. The deaths of the martyrs were 
regarded by the Church as the offering of a crown of 
flowers to God, the various colours signifying the variety 
of their deaths. 


Martyrdom of Justin 

A much drier and more formal account, illustrative of 
the sort of answers made by the accused Christians, is 
the record of the death of Justin (probably the well- 
known apologist) and his companion at Rome. The 
origin of the document is unknown, but its very baldness 
is a testimony to its genuine antiquity. The holy men 
were brought before the prefect of Rome, Rusticus.— 
Rusticus said to Justin, “Obey the Gods at once and 
sacrifice to the emperor.” Justin said, “To obey the com- 
mandments of our Saviour Jesus Christ is worthy neither 
of blame nor of condemnation.” Rusticus then asked 
Justin as to his doctrine. Then follows an examination. 
Rusticus, ‘““Where do you assembler” Justin, “Where 
one chooses and can: for do you fancy we all meet in 
the very same place, etc., etc.”’ Rusticus, ““Where do you 
assemble and in what place do you collect your fol- 
lowers?” Justin, “I live above one Martinus, at the 
Timotimian Bath: and during the whole time (I am now 
living at Rome for the second time) I am unaware of any 
other meeting than his. And if any one wished to come 
to me, I communicated to him the doctrines of the truth.” 
Rusticus, “Are you not then a Christian?” Justin, “Yes, 


124 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


I am a Christian.” Then the companions of Justin were 
examined in the same manner. All acknowledged they 
were Christians. Finally Rusticus said, “Having come 
together, offer sacrifice with one accord to the gods.” 
Justin, “Do what you will, no one falls away from piety 
to impiety.” Rusticus warns them what will happen if 
they disobey, and then sentences them to be scourged 
and beheaded. It is noticeable here that the Church is 
not mentioned. Justin apparently is a stranger in Rome, 
teaching independently of any organization. This is an 
indication of the archaic character of the account. 


Perpetua 

The last martyrdom to be considered is the beautiful 
one of Perpetua and her companions. It is important as 
an example of the intense fervour of the martyr spirit. 
In prison Perpetua has a succession of visions; and for 
this reason it is suggested that the martyrs were Mon- 
tanists, not orthodox Christians. They were not treated 
with anything approaching the cruelty shown to the 
martyrs of Lyons, though their deaths entailed the usual 
sufferings of those exposed in the arena. Indeed, when 
they refused to wear heathen costumes in the arena, and 
said they were dying because they would not comply, 
A gnovit iniustitia tustictam, and they were not compelled 
to put them on. The whole story is a revelation of the 
martyr spirit at its best. 


Abuses of martyrdom 

That it was not always so amiable or disinterested is 
clear. Hippolytus relates how his rival, Callistus, sought 
to atone for or conceal his frauds by trying to provoke 
martyrdom for disturbing the service of a synagogue. 
Eulalia, the patron saint of Merida, or Barcelona, rushed 
into the court and struck or even spat in the face of the 
presiding magistrate. Lucian, the satirist, describes the 


THE SPIRIT OF MARTYRDOM 125 


impostor, Alexander of Abonoteichus, becoming a Chris- 
tian and getting thrown into prison in order to be fed, 
and cherished by the pious solicitude of his dupes. But 
these must be regarded as blemishes, perhaps inevitable 
in the noble record of the Church. 

The Roman Empire failed to crush the Church partly 
because this form of passive resistance made the rulers 
unwilling to persist, and the heroism of the martyrs won 
more converts than the preaching of the Gospel itself. 
As Tertullian truly said, “their blood was their seed.” 
It is significant that in the first days it was the mob who 
clamoured for the execution of Christians, and that the 
martyrdoms were less popular when the government took 
the suppression of the Church seriously in hand. 


Effect of the persecutions on the development of the 
Church 

The martyr age had much influence on the way in 
which the Faith ultimately developed and a few ways in 
which this did so may now be indicated. The martyr 
spirit protested against the entire religious policy of the 
Empire, which tried, first to regulate, and afterwards to 
tolerate all faiths, on condition that they did not molest 
one another. The Christians, it is true, discouraged open 
molestation of the heathen worship, but their conduct 
when they were in power showed that they were unable 
to allow any religion but their own. This, in the age of 
persecution, was shown in their refusal to yield a single 
point in deference to the general desire to pay divine 
honours in any sense to Rome and the emperor. The 
antagonism between Church and State never really ceased, 
and became acute in western medieval Europe. 


Schisms due to persecution 
Persecution had the effect first of uniting, and then of 
disintegrating, the Church. The common danger drove 


126 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


the Christians together; they rallied under their bishops; 
they organized themselves in the Catholic Church. After 
a while, however, every persecution resulted in schism. 
The question arose as to who had been faithful and who 
had apostatised; who ought to continue in the Church, 
and who had forfeited his claim to communion. Investi- 
gations were held, odious recriminations were made, and 
parties split off from the Church. Novatianism, Don- 
atism, and the Meletian Schism in Egypt, all arose after 
days of persecution. 


Veneration of martyrs 

The just admiration for the martyr was succeeded by 
an extravagant belief in his power to save. By death he 
had become an influence in heaven, and even before it 
he was first accorded, and then claimed the right, to 
interfere in the discipline of the Church. The story of 
Cyprian reveals the trials of a bishop who desired to 
keep his flock united, in the face of those who wished 
those awaiting martyrdom to be arbiters of the situation. 
In the end, the superstitious veneration for martyrdom 
led to the worst abuses of saint worship and vicarious 
atonement for the sins of weaker Christians. 

Finally, martyrdom proved an outlet for Christian zeal, 
and, when it was no longer possible to obtain it, other 
channels had to be found. With its disappearance the 
most earnest believers sought the solitude of the desert 
and a life of self-torture. The hermit, the ascetic, and 
the monk became the successors of the martyr. 








CHAPTER XIII 


THE CHURCH AND OTHER RELIGIONS 


The Hebrew, Greek and Latin genius 

The inscription on the Cross was in Hebrew, Greek, 
and Latin. This is profoundly significant, for in the con- 
flict of religions in the years which followed the estab- 
lishment of the Roman world domination these were the 
three religious elements which moulded the faith of 
western humanity. Of these the Semitic was the most 
ancient, and also the most vital. It is the basis of the 
great active, as opposed to contemplative, religions of 
mankind, Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism. 
It is hardly too much to say that to it the world owes, 
almost entirely, the conception of one Personal God. 
The Greek genius was philosophical rather than religious: 
it busied itself at first with the problem of the natural 
world; it made politics into a science, and ethics into a 
eysiemn. It raised the problems of existence and taught 
men how to think. The Roman, profoundly influenced 
and attracted as he was by Greek ideas, had more in 
common with the Jew. Both were fundamentally prac- 
tical: the Jew looked to a God who would, if only His 
Law were obeyed, grant prosperity, and the Roman gods 
were the virtues which made states prosperous, and the 
forces of nature which made the land fertile. Rome’s real 
contribution to religion was his natural sense of the im- 
portance of law. God, theology, and an organised Church 
made up the threefold inheritance of Christianity, due 
to its Hebrew, Greek, and Roman elements. The three 

127 


128 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


are each of them necessary to the existence of our re- 
ligion. Judaism, as we know it, originated with the cap- 
tivity: Greek philosophy became all powerful during 
the struggle with Persia, and the Roman influence began 
to be world-wide after the vicissitudes of defeat and 
victory during the Second Punic War. A great national 
crisis moulded the destiny of each people. 


Roman religion 

The religion of Rome was essentially that of an estab- 
lished church, and possessed all the qualities of a state 
religion. It was eminently sensible and aimed at pro- 
moting morality and the civic virtues generally. It was 
regulated by senatus consulta, and discouraged enthusi- 
asm. It was closely bound up with the ancient religion; 
it was designed exclusively for Roman citizens; its sur- 
vivals of remote antiquity were regulated by common 
sense. When alarming portents occurred, the Senate took 
prompt action, and alleviated the public anxiety by a 
lectisternium or a supplicatio. But established churches 
have never satisfied the devouter minds, who want some- 
thing more personal and less official. Accordingly, no 
sooner did Rome come into contact with the East, than a 
desire was felt for its more emotional forms of worship. 


Image of Cybele sent for to Rome 

The Second Punic War is an example of how a nation 
which can endure defeat can secure victory in the end. 
Hannibal crossed the Alps in B.c. 218 and descended into 
Italy, and so completely out-generalled the Romans that 
they could not meet him without being almost annihilated, 
and by B.c. 216, the year of the Battle of Cannae, their 
cause seemed hopeless. Then, slowly and almost imper- 
ceptibly, the tide began to turn. Three critical years were 
marked by intense religious excitement, which the Senate 
repeatedly tried to allay. At last, in B.c. 205, the 


THE CHURCH AND OTHER RELIGIONS 129 


Sibylline Books declared that, if the ‘‘image’”—a meteoric 
stone—of Cybele, the Great Mother, were brought to 
Rome, Hannibal would be finally expelled from Italy. 
An embassy was sent to Attalus, King of Pergamus, who 
consented to its removal. The goddess arrived at Ostia 
and was met by Scipio and the noblest matrons of the 
city. From Ostia she was conducted in triumph to the 
Capitol. In B.c. 202, the Battle of Zama was fought, and 
in the next year the Second Punic War was at an end, and 
Rome was the first power in the world. 

This is one of the great crises in the history of religion. 
The people who were about to dominate the earth had 
no religion themselves to support them in a great trial, 
much less which they could impose on the nations they 
were about to subdue. On the contrary, they had to 
borrow their religion and civilisation from the conquered 
peoples. 


One God sought 

The Hellenic and Italian worlds had consisted of city 
states, all self-contained, independent, and often at war 
with one another. Each city, including Rome, had its 
own gods. The first blow at this condition of things was 
due to the conquests of Alexander the Great. The East 
had long witnessed the rise and fall of empires, a number 
of nations reduced to subjection under the monarch of 
some conquering race, who was literally a king of kings. 
Alexander, by his amazing military successes, became a 
potentate of the oriental type; and those who came after 
him each was recognised as the head of a smaller empire 
of his own. These Macedonian monarchs claimed to 
be, and were recognised as, worthy of divine honours. 
In the second century B.c., the Romans were annexing 
the possessions of the Diadochi, and paving the way for 
a consolidation of the ancient world under a single rule. 


130 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


All this was tending towards the idea of world-wide gods, 
in place of the local city or tribal deities. The most 
famous of these was Serapis, whose temple in the new 
city of Alexandria was founded by Ptolemy Soter: and 
its destruction in the reign of Theodosius the Great 
marked the fall of Egyptian paganism. The face of 
Serapis, the last great production of Athenian art, is 
that of a benevolent despot, the ruler of the world, Lord 
of fertility above, and of the regions below the surface 
of the earth. 


Personal religion found in the worship of Cybele 

The introduction of the worship of Cybele at Rome, 
and of Serapis at Alexandria, expresses the new tendencies 
of the religion of the world at the time of the close of 
its city states. Both took place in the second century 
B.c. The worship of Cybele was a personal rather than 
a national religion. It appealed to the emotions, and to 
the deepest of human sympathies. She was an awful, 
eastern goddess. When the wind roared amid the pines, 
it seemed as though she was driving through them in her 
car drawn by lions. She was also sorrowing for her mate, 
Attis; and this caused her worship to combine sentiment 
with terror. Her priests were not official, like those of 
the Roman gods, but clergy in the modern sense of men, 
wholly devoted to worship and set apart from others. 
They practised self-mutilation, like some modern Russian 
sects; and led a worship which was orgiastic in the 
extreme. The dignified Romans disliked the introduction 
of this new religion, which offended their sense of de- 
corum; but it became increasingly popular, especially 
among the women, and was firmly established. 


Isis 
It was followed by that of Isis, whose ritual was even 
more appealing to the imagination, as was the story of 


THE CHURCH AND OTHER RELIGIONS 1831 


her sorrowful search for Osiris, her husband, who had 
been torn in pieces by Typhon, the evil one, and whose 
body she recovered. ‘These exciting forms of worship, 
with their personal appeal, became more and more attrac- 
tive as the old Roman spirit declined. 


Serapis 

Serapis, the mysterious god, brought to Alexandria by 
Ptolemy I, appealed to another desire of the time. Now 
that men were becoming less divided into petty states, 
they wanted a deity common to all. The disappearance 
of civic nationality made for monotheism, and the knowl- 
edge of many religions drove men to believe that there 
was one god under various names. Serapis seemed to 
satisfy the requirement. 


Need for purification 

With this desire for a personal contact with the deity, 
and the tendency to unify the idea of God, there was also 
a sense of individual guilt, and a desire for purification. 
This had doubtless a noble aspect, and was an advance 
in religious consciousness; but there was another side. 
Guilt was that which had incurred the displeasure of a 
god; and the god need not be essentially moral. To ap- 
pease his anger, the thing was to perform the correct 
ceremonies, to be in the correct ritual condition, and to 
use the correct formula. But in these religions it was at 
least something gained that there were purificatory rites, 
because these made, however imperfectly, for personal 
religion. The most famous of these was the taurobolium 
or criobolium, the sacrifice of a bull or ram, whose blood 
was allowed to fall upon the person who sought to be 
cleansed from sin. Those who submitted to it were born 
again, sometimes for a period of years, at others forever, 
for we find the expression in eternum renatus—reborn 
for eternity. 


132 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


The future life 

The ancients were signally indifferent as to the life to 
come. In this the Hebrews were in agreement with the 
rest of the world. Hades, Sheol, or whatever it was 
called, was so dreary a place that it could be of no in- 
terest to any man. This life was the chief thing after all. 
The exception was the Egyptian religion. This was 
directed to salvation after death from the judgment which 
awaited the sinner. Osiris guided the soul through the 
nether world, where his good and bad deeds were weighed 
in a just balance and his fate decided. The Osiris myth 
in itself was a lesson in death and resurrection. When 
men began to turn to the faiths of the East, they began 
to desire in some way to triumph over death and to seek 
a religion which would enable them to do so. 


Persia 

It is sometimes forgotten that though one often speaks 
of the Roman Empire as world-wide, it had always one 
formidable rival against which it strove with varying 
success: first the Parthian, and afterward the restored 
Persian Empire, strove with the armies of Rome, not by 
any means always in favour of the western power. In- 
deed the most terrible defeats of the Roman army oc- 
curred when they attacked or were attacked by the great 
eastern power. It was a spiritual contest as well, and 
the religion of Iran invaded the dominion of Rome. In 
later days it became the most formidable rival of the 
Christian Church. 


Mithras 

The form in which Persian influence made itself felt 
was in the worship of Mithras. This cult was intro- 
duced from Cilicia when Pompey destroyed the pirates. 
It spread rapidly in the Latin world, never among the 


THE CHURCH AND OTHER RELIGIONS 133 


Greeks. Its morality was higher than that of any of the 
eastern religions. It was preéminently the soldier’s re- 
ligion, with its strong dualism, its good and evil spirits 
in eternal conflict. Wherever the Roman army went, it 
was accompanied by the worship of Mithras, with its 
initiations, its degrees of perfection, its sacraments, so 
like the Christian that the Fathers said the demons had 
imitated them. It was the most formidable rival to 
Christianity; and just before the final triumph of Chris- 
tianity, Diocletian, in whose time was the great perse- 
cution, took Mithras as his god, as Constantine later did 
Christ. 


Astrology 

One of the latest forms of idolatry adopted by the 
Israelites before the Captivity was that of the Host of 
Heaven. This was but natural when they became ac- 
quainted with the valley of the Euphrates, where the 
study of the motions of the heavenly bodies was most 
ardently pursued. The Babylonian priesthood undoubt- 
edly carried on their observations as scientifically as pos- 
sible, and thus far they were correct; but it was also 
believed that there was a close correspondence between 
the stars and human life, and that the affairs of this 
world were determined by the stars. Hence came as- 
trology, which, though not itself a religion, was destined 
for many centuries to be a potent influence on thought, 
and man has to a certain degree remained under its spell 
to this day. The augur retired into the background, and 
the astrologer took his place. Astrology was considered 
a profound science, and was called the “queen of the 
sciences,” and people were warned against impostors as 
they are now against dope doctors. Only those who had 
really studied it seriously should be consulted. In Baby- 
lonia was a preéminently priestly affair. The arguments 


134 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


in favour of it were urged with skill and fervour. There 
was harmony in heaven and earth. The stars were (even 
the Christians admitted this) sentient beings who watched 
over the destinies of men. All things depended on their 
position in the firmament. This was the clue to the 
Stoic doctrine of recurrence. When all things returned 
to their exact position the course of the world’s history 
would repeat itself. Thus fatalism became deeply in- 
grained in most people who believed that they were under 
an inexorable destiny, controlled by the stars. For this, 
among other reasons, the Christians strongly asserted the 
freedom of the will, or at least so much as to ensure the 
realisation that man is morally responsible for his actions 
and in a measure for his future destiny. In the Gentile 
world the philosophers taught that a man could rise above 
fate by moral qualities; but the popular belief was that 
this could be accomplished by mystic ceremonies. 


Magic 

With astrology, and also from the East, as its name 
implied, came magic, the practise of the magi—the priest- 
hood of Persia. The magician was to be found every- 
where, among the highest and the lowest. Every new 
find of papyri seems to contain incantations and magic 
spells. The Jews were prominent among the wonder 
workers from the East. They were half-despised and 
half-feared for their strange religion, and their worship of 
an unnamed God. They appear in Acts as rivals of the 
first preachers of the Gospel, as exorcists and magicians, 
working miracles. This is confirmed by the Latin satir- 
ists, and by the recurrence of Hebrew names in magic 
formula. Doubtless this greatly increased the influence 
of Judaism in the world under the empire. 


THE CHURCH AND OTHER RELIGIONS | 135 


Mysteries 

The Mystery Religions played their part in the re- 
ligious changes of the age. The sense that there were 
secrets which those who were worthy alone could know; 
the rites, which turned generally upon death and the 
triumph over death, and were progressive, leading the 
neophyte to the knowledge of one great secret after 
another; the ordeals, by which his fortitude was tested; 
the sense of responsibility to the order to which he be- 
longed, were all attractive to those who desired in religion 
something, not official, but personal. Further, they pre- 
pared many for the idea of a church as a social organ- 
isation. Strangely enough the worship of the emperor 
had not a little to do with paving the way for a very 
different religion. ‘The worship of men in their lifetime 
was Greek, and is first heard of when the Greek cities 
erected altars and burnt sacrifices to the Spartan Ly- 
sander. It was discouraged by Augustus, who would not 
allow it in Italy, but permitted it in the provinces. Priest- 
hoods were organised, temples erected, fraternities were 
formed to worship the genius of Rome and Cesar; and 
the culture became a means of unifying the Empire. 


Why Christianity triumphed 

One of the great problems in the history of the Church 
is whether Christianity was no more than one of the 
many religions which were striving for the mastery in 
the Roman world. After all it was, like many others, 
an oriental faith which began in obscurity, then rivalled 
and finally supplanted the other faiths; and it is easy to 
speak as if it were only a trifle better than the best of 
them, of Mithraism for example. It is easy to use fine 
phrases to explain away Christianity; to describe it as a 
“synthesis,” or a “complex,” but it leaves us no nearer 
what we want to know, namely, why it conquered the 


136 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


world and became the basis of a better civilisation than 
that of the ancient empire. The coldest historical critic 
must admit that it did more than any of the religions 
which entered into competition with it, and all that can 
here be done is to indicate wherein it excelled all the 
systems touched on in this chapter. 

1. It supplied the emotional element which the re- 
ligions of Asia Minor ministered, but transferred the 
object to one whose character and teaching was utterly 
opposed to the orgiastic and immoral worship of the 
Great Mother. 

2. Mankind craved someone to worship who had been 
himself a sufferer, and who could thus be in sympathy 
with men. ‘They feared death, and longed to be assured 
that they could triumph over it. The Isis and Osiris 
cults gave this assurance, but the example of Jesus, not 
in remote antiquity, but in the time of “Pontius Pilate” 
supplied it tenfold. 

3. Astronomy taught the wonder of the universe, but 
astrology drove men into the prison house of fatalism, 
from which Christianity delivered them. 

4. Magic, at its best, warded off the demons of which 
men were so afraid. Christianity’s substitute was faith 
in Jesus. 

5. The worship of the emperor encouraged the idea of 
the unity of the human race. The Church united all 
nations in brotherhood, both in this world and the next; 
and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that even the 
corrupt religions at the time of Christ helped to prepare 
the way for Him. 


ea ee ee 


CHAPTER XIV 
CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER PHILOSOPHIES 


In what sense Christianity was a philosophy 
Christianity was often spoken of as a “philosophy,” as 
was Judaism. True, many Christians disliked the term. 
It is but once used in the New Testament, and is coupled 
with “vain deceit.” Nor is this to be wondered at. 
Philosophy is a human thing, the wisdom of this world; 
the Gospel of Christ is rightly described as “‘a power of 
God unto salvation,” and these are in natural antagonism 
to one another. But despite this, Christianity was a 
philosophy in the sense that it was a rule of life, and 
also because, having certain dogmas to maintain, it was 
compelled to employ the language of philosophy in their 
defense. Moreover, as the thought of the age was ex- 
pressed in terms of philosophy, it naturally affected the 
language and through it the conceptions of the Church. 
When Paul went to Athens he was encountered by 
Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, and in his speech on 
the Areopagus he alludes to the dogma of the Epicureans, 
“‘God needs nothing,” and quotes the Stoic poet who says, 
“For we are his offspring.” The author of Acts, in his 
brief account of the visit of the apostle to Athens, and 
the still briefer summary of the “apology” put into his 
mouth, introduces us to the two great popular philoso- 
phers of the age when the Church made its appearance. 


Epicurus 
Epicurus has given his name to words which in many 
languages are synonymous with self-indulgence. To us, 
137 


138 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


an epicure signifies one who is fastidious about food and 
drink. In later Hebrew, the Epicurosin were the atheists 
who preferred the delights of this world to the practise 
of the law of God. Horace speaks of “the pig out of the 
herd of Epicurus.” Yet Epicurus, the Athenian, taught 
that wise moderation and contentment were the secrets 
of happiness, and the noblest of scientific poems on the 
Nature of Things was the work of the Roman poet 
Lucretius, who speaks of his master in rapturous terms 
as the man who freed mankind from the cruel tyranny 
of superstition. A brief description of the origin and 
principles of his philosophy are not out of place. 


The “Garden” at Athens 

Epicurus gathered around him a large school at Athens, 
and having purchased a garden in the city taught his 
classes in it, so that his system is often called that of 
“the Garden.” Living in the later half of the fourth cen- 
tury B.c. at a time when an Athenian had little hope of 
doing effective public work, his natural temperament 
made Epicurus indisposed to a quixotic philosophy. His 
motto was “live in obscurity,” and his ideal happiness 
was absence of anxiety. He appears to have been very 
temperate in his life, a good friend, and even a good 
citizen. He was greatly beloved by his many pupils. 
His boast was that he had evolved his own philosophy, 
which accepted the existence of the gods, but maintained 
that they led an existence, untroubled by the affairs of 
men; and he taught that the universe was due to the for- 
tuitous contact of atoms falling through space. 


Lucretius 

Were it not for Lucretius this system would be little 
known. The poet does not profess to give all the teach- 
ings of his master, but to insist that, as it is, man is made 





CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER PHILOSOPHIES 139 


miserable by the terrors of superstition which threatens 
him with hell; that the popular religion is an incentive to 
evil rather than good; and that happiness consists in 
learning what science has to teach as to the origin of 
nature. The interesting thing about Lucretius is that he 
proclaims a doctrine purely materialistic with the fervour 
of a prophet, and pleads with all his powers of persuasion 
to men to forsake the dreams of religion for the cer- 
tainties of science. The age of Lucretius, in the last days 
of the Roman Republic, was one of complete scepticism 
among the upper classes. The old Roman religion had 
failed, and nothing but oriental superstitions or an entire 
neglect of the gods was there to take its place. The 
temples were neglected and were falling into decay. It 
appeared as though the day of Roman pietas had closed 
forever. 


Religious revival under Augustus 

Then came the religious revival under Augustus. The 
emperor appealed, and not in vain, to the spiritual in- 
stincts of his people, who vied with one another in restor- 
ing the ancient worship. The magnificent secular games 
of B.c. 17, to which the poets Horace, Tibullus, Ovid, all 
lent their aid roused enthusiasm; and Virgil set before the 
world an ideal of duty and devotion, which, even more 
than his Fourth Eclogue, foreshadowed the coming of the 
Christian spirit into the world. In Stoicism a more moral 
and less material philosophy had been introduced. 


Zeno and Stoicism 

It is perhaps no accident that Zeno was a native of 
Cyprus, the Kittim of Scripture; for his philosophy has 
something akin to the zeal for righteousness of the old 
Hebrew prophet. There is no need to go at length into 
the system of the Stoics: sufficient to say that their stern 


140 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


teaching as to duty, and of the self-sufficiency of the truly 
wise man who, should stand relying on his virtue in face 
of all calamities, appealed to the Romans ever since the 
intercourse between the younger Scipio and his friends 
with the Stoic Panztius towards the close of the second 
century B.c. From that time a sort of modified stoicism 
was the favourite philosophy of the Romans, who gave 
it a decidedly practical direction. Under its influence not 
merely the study of law, but of its meaning and purpose, 
and of the higher justice, attracted the Roman lawyer. 
Natural law, applicable to the whole race of man, began 
to be recognised. A greater humanity tended to mitigate 
the cruelty of the ancient law of slavery, as the rights 
of man began increasingly to be recognised. 


Seneca 

This is displayed especially in Seneca, whose utterances 
betray a liberal spirit marking a new age, which causes so 
uncompromising a Christian as Tertullian, himself a 
lawyer, to describe him as “often one of us” (saepe 
noster). 


Plutarch 

In Plutarch, the famous biographer of antiquity, ap- 
pears the attempt of ancient paganism to adjust itself to 
new conditions. He is one of the most amiable characters 
in all antiquity, a man who had travelled widely and 
studied much, but preferred a life of quiet usefulness at 
his beloved home at Cheronza in Boeotia to any honours 
the world could give. He was a teacher of morality by ex- 
ample and precept, and his highest aim appears to have 
been the improvement of his fellow-men. Deeply in- 
terested in the old religion of Hellas,—he was a priest at 
Delphi—he could not fail to notice the absurdity, and 
even immorality of many of its myths; but instead of 
relinquishing it on that account he sought to give its 


CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER PHILOSOPHIES 141 


fables a deeper meaning than was apparent at first sight. 
This is seen in his book on the Egyptian myth of Isis and 
Osiris, the very subject of which proves his tendency to 
the religious syncretism of his age. He endeavoured to 
secure the purity of the Supreme Being by making the 
demons, the gods and heroes of ancient Greece, the media 
of communication with mankind. He is forced to admit 
the existence of an evil spirit in the world; but he does 
not consider, as many of his contemporaries did, that 
matter is necessary evil. Plutarch’s genius is too prac- 
tical in being primarily interested in moral conduct, for 
him to be ranked among the great philosophers. He can- 
not speak harshly of a superstition which fosters virtue. 
There is a good deal of religious conservatism of the mod- 
ern type in him. Too highly cultured to be able to accept 
the absurdities of the old faith, he is prepared, not to 
jettison it altogether, but to adapt it to the more enlight- 
ened spirit of his age. He is in a sense a pioneer of the 
movement which was about to come from Alexandria. 


Celsus’ attack on the Christians 

The first points of contact between philosophy and 
Christianity appear in the age of the Antonines, in what 
is called the Plato-Pythagorean system. Of Celsus, the 
literary opponent of the new religion, it is scarcely nec- 
essary to say much here, as he will demand attention when 
we deal with Christian apologetic, and the same applies 
to Fronto of Cirta. 


Neo-Platonism 

The philosopher who paved the way for Neo-Platonism, 
which acted and reacted so greatly on Christian thought, 
was Numenius of Apamea. With him we enter upon a 
new phase in speculative philosophy, which approaches 
to theology. In one respect Numenius was modern, as he 
wanted to get behind systems as accepted in order to find 


142 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


the true Pythagoras and Plato behind the doctrines which 
bear their names. He desires to collect the wisdom of all 
the nations, Persia, Egypt, India; and he has a high 
respect for the Jews, and especially for Moses. Origen 
says that, without naming Him, he honoured Jesus. The 
system of Numenius has some decidedly Gnostic traits. 
The supreme God does nothing: he is inactive (argos). 
The second God is the active being, and is good. He is 
the Creator. True to the Pythagorean philosophy, which 
pays the greatest attention to number, Numenius has his 
Triad, the Being who presides over things spiritual 
(noéta); the Creator, who is twofold, in that he has to do 
with the spiritual and phenomenal; the World is the 
third God. But these are not in any sense equal. 

We may pass by the moral philosophers, like Epictetus 
and Marcus Aurelius, because important as is their teach- 
ing in its similarity to, and difference from, that of the 
Christians, the present purpose is to enquire how the 
speculations of the age bore on its theology. 


Alexandria 

The capital of thought was undoubtedly Alexandria; 
where assuredly the genius of the Christian Origen had 
provided a stimulus alike to Christians and heathens. 
The Christian religion was in process of forming a highly 
systematised scheme of doctrine, explaining its funda- 
mental dogmas in the current language of the time. And 
as religion was becoming more and more of a philosophy, 
so philosophy tended to be increasingly religious, espe- 
cially by the adoption of mystical methods of approach- 
ing God, the great Ultimate Reality. In the death 
struggle between the old and the new faiths, which cul- 
minated in the Diocletian persecution, each became more 
and more like the other, and it is no exaggeration to say 
that Neo-Platonism survived in Christianity. 


CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER PHILOSOPHIES 143 


Ammonius Saccas 

The founder of this philosophy was Ammonius Saccas, 
who is said to have been originally a Christian. Nothing 
of his writings has survived, and he lived only in his 
disciple Plotinus, who, when he first heard him, exclaimed, 
“This is the man I am looking for.” Christians are men- 
tioned as attending his lectures, among them Origen, who 
must not be confounded with a heathen Origen, who was 
a favourite disciple and one of the successors of 
Ammonius. 


The Neoplatonic 

Alexandria had long been the home of mysticism, alle- 
gorism, and asceticism. Philo and the Therapeute, 
Clement and Origen, all practiced or advocated these. 
The new school sought for the vision of God; and, in their 
adaptation of the teaching of Pythagoras, initiated his 
life of self-discipline, explained the old religion by alle- 
gory, and perhaps adopted somewhat of the teaching of 
the Christian Catechetical School. Their doctrine of 
reality was Platonic, but in practice they were attracted 
more than the philosophers of antiquity by the miracu- 
lous. In prayerfulness, meditation and the like, they 
rivalled the Christians. 


Plotinus 

Plotinus himself is not disposed to the miraculous side 
of Neo-Platonism. Though he says he was vouchsafed 
the Beatific Vision, he never tried in any way to bring 
himself deliberately into an ecstatic condition. The sys- 
tem of Plotinus is trinitarlan. The three Divine Prin- 
ciples are the Absolute, Spirit, and the Soul (psyche). 
Man consists of Spirit, Soul, and Body. Matter (hyle) 
is not in itself evil, it is the thing on which mind works. 
Plotinus is absolutely against the Gnostic notion that this 


144 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


visible material world is evil. It is on the contrary part 
of one harmonious whole. What is material, however, 
has no true existence (ousia). That belongs to God, the 
ineffable, alone, and does not exist in the world of sense. 
Thus we have the word ousia, later adopted and bitterly 
disputed in the Church, in the sense, not of anything we 
connect with substance, but of ultimate reality. 


The doctrine of Resurrection 

It is of great interest to us to see how the Christians 
and Neo-Platonists of Alexandria faced the great dif- 
ficulty of life after death. Origen, a Platonist in his 
philosophy and a Christian by conviction, had before him 
the problem of reconciling the highly idealistic views of 
his school with the somewhat crass materialism of the 
popular faith. In their anxiety to safeguard the truths 
that man is wholly God’s, and that he owes not only his 
spirit and his soul to the Creator, but his body also, and 
that Christ is actually the Saviour of the body, they made 
their doctrine of Resurrection almost repulsively ma- 
terial. Origen and Clement as far as possible shelve the 
discussion of a bodily resurrection, or, following Paul, 
explain it as something of a more spiritual nature. To 
Plotinus this difficulty does not occur; he believes in the 
natural immortality of the soul. It has neither begin- 
ning nor end. There is no need of Paul’s “spiritual 
body.” At death the soul awakens from the body. Here 
the Neo-Platonists and the Christian part. To the one 
the future life is a theory, to the other a revealed fact. 
To some of us the philosopher has the advantage; but it 
is not by theories, but by facts that the world is gained. 


Porphyry’s life of Plotinus 
The scene of Plotinus’ teaching was Rome; but he pro- 
fesses that he only reproduced that of his master Am- 


CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER PHILOSOPHIES 145 


monius Saccas, the Alexandrian porter, who by his native 
genius had become a philosopher, being, as was claimed 
for him, taught of God. Porphyry, who sat under Plotinus 
in his later years, gives a singularly attractive portrait of 
his master. He seems to have been modest and unas- 
suming, singularly patient with his pupils, fond of chil- 
dren, scrupulous as a trustee of the property of others. 
He was a lecturer rather than a writer: and but for his 
unattractive style it has been declared that he would have 
perhaps been recognised as a thinker equal, if not su- 
perior, to Plato. 


The Church and the philosophers 

Between the best moral writers of Greece and Rome 
and those of the Church in the first days of Christianity, 
there may seem to be some difficulty in awarding the 
palm. The philosophers on both sides have also a strong 
family likeness. It is necessary to go deeper than their 
expressed opinions on righteousness and the relation of 
man to God. But when we have done so, the difference 
is that Christian ethics and speculations have manifestly a 
power which does not manifest itself in rival systems. 
There is something virile in early Christianity which is 
lacking in the whole of later paganism. Origen had an 
enthusiasm which is not found in the philosophers. To 
him the world was being redeemed by Christ; to them, 
as to all outward observers, it was going steadily down- 
ward. The philosopher sought to withdraw from active 
life in order to reflect on the sublime, but when the Chris- 
tian fled the world and hid in the desert it was to fight 
with Satan there. When Plotinus was trying to found in 
the abandoned Campania, a city of philosophers, a Plato- 
nopolis, the Christians were striving to establish the City 
of God on earth. 


CHAPTER XV 


THE CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS 


Defect of all “apologies” 

In a sense apologetic is the most unsatisfactory litera- 
ture in the world. It is argument in favour of a religion, 
and to be convincing it must be directed to the objections 
raised at the time it is composed. It must also use the 
arguments most persuasive at the particular period. Nor 
is it the object of the apologist to advance a defense too 
logical to be appreciated by those to whom it is addressed. 
The object, for example, of the apologist who addressed 
Hadrian, was to persuade that emperor that the Chris- 
tians were harmless ‘folk who ought not to be persecuted. 
If his arguments convinced the emperor, they were 
good, because they effected the purpose for which they 
were adduced. They may seem absurd or illogical to us; 
but as we cannot issue rescripts ordering persecution 
to cease, and Hadrian could, this matters nothing. In 
estimating an apology, those to whom it is addressed, and 
the circumstances, must be taken into account; and we 
have no right to expect that it will or, indeed ought, 
always to appeal to us. 


Why they are still important 
On the other hand, if we approach the study of the 
apologies in the spirit of historical inquirers, they will 
prove full of interest. They will reveal the feelings of 
each side, what inspired one, and provoked the other. 
Light will be thrown on the manners, customs, and ideas 
146 





THE CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS 147 


of a bygone age; and we shall be able better to appre- 
ciate its thought by this means almost than by any other. 
Were it not for the apologies, we should know but little 
of the actual Christian life of the second and third cen- 
turies. Fortunately the apologists provide us with some 
of the arguments advanced by the heathen against the 
Christians. 


New Testament Apologetic 

The New Testament contains much apologetic ma- 
terial, in the sense of defense of the Christians before the 
heathen world. The tone of the Acts is apologetic 
throughout, especially in the later portion; but there are 
echoes of it also in the Gospels. The passion of Jesus 
is related with two objects: that of proving to the Jews 
that all happened in accordance with Scripture, and that 
of showing to the Gentiles that He was innocent in the 
eyes of Pilate, the Roman governor. It cannot be acci- 
dental that each of the four evangelists insists on the 
desire of Pilate to release Jesus, because He was guiltless 
of any crime against the Romans; and that, despite the 
danger which every prominent man under Tiberius ran 
of the least suspicion of treason, he rejected the charge 
that Jesus had claimed to be a king. That the purpose 
was to show that no reasonable man, even though he were 
a corrupt official, could believe that Jesus was an enemy 
of Rome, is borne out by the very early Christian story 
that Pilate reported the wonderful works of Christ to 
Tiberius, who, but for the opposition of the senate, would 
have declared Him to be a god. 


Christians insist that they are disloyal to government 
From a Jewish standpoint, Jesus would have been much 
more likely to be recognised as Messiah had He declared 
Himself on the national side; but His undeniable detach- 
ment from the political and nationalist aspirations of the 


148 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


time was a strong argument to the Roman government of 
the harmless character of His doctrine. The same thing 
appears in the Acts. Here, the persecutions which the 
Christians underwent are represented as illegal, and the 
charges made against Paul by Jews or Gentiles as ridicu- 
lous. When one analyses the book, it is remarkable how 
much of it is occupied by attempts to show that the posi- 
tion of Paul was, from the Roman standpoint, absolutely 
legal. The speeches are in themselves condensed apolo- 
gies for the Faith, and in them we see how its Jewish 
and Gentile adversaries are encountered. 


Claim that prophecy is fulfilled 

To the Jew, it was necessary to show that the life and 
death of Jesus was an exact fulfilment of prophecy, and 
that these took place “by the determinate counsel and 
fore-knowledge of God” at exactly the time when the Old 
Covenant had reached its climax, and was completed by 
the appearance of Messiah. Further, it was necessary 
to prove that the true Israelites were not the rulers of 
the Jews, who, like their forefathers, were rebellious 
against God, but those who accepted Jesus as the Christ. 


Christianity the natural religion of the good 

On the other hand, the Gentiles needed to be instructed 
in the unreasonableness of polytheism and idolatry, and 
to learn that what seemed to them new and strange doc- 
trines were the proclamation of ancient truths, to which 
the best teachers of the world had always testified. In 
other words, that Christianity was naturally the religion 
of all good and wise men. 

The New Testament apologetic, thus briefly indicated, 
was the basis of the main argument advanced in later 
times against the heathen world; the rest of ancient 
apologetic being devoted to replying to the accusations 
made against the Church. 


a 


THE CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS 149 


Aristides 

The earliest apology is that of Aristides. The dis- 
covery, first of the Syriac, and later of the Greek ver- 
sion, is one of the most important additions to our knowl- 
edge of primitive Christianity in modern times. It is 
addressed to Hadrian (117-138). Mankind is divided 
into races, which, according to the ideas of the Near East, 
are determined by their religions. The Jews are the best; 
their worship is the most reasonable; the great fault in 
it is that angels are served as well as God. But a new 
“race” has appeared in the Christians. These are dis- 
tinguished for their holy lives, and the love they bear to 
one another. Their belief is expressed in a very simple 
creed, which somewhat resembles the baptismal profes- 
sion of the ancient Roman church. The favourable men- 
tion of the Jews in this apology is remarkable. 


Justin Martyr 

The next apologist is Justin Martyr. Like Aristides 
and Quadratus, who is mentioned by Eusebius with him, 
Justin was a philosopher, that is to say a professional 
teacher of wisdom. The philosopher, much more than 
the priest, was analogous to the modern clergyman. He 
dressed differently from the other men, and his modest 
attire, in contrast to the “dandyism” of the age, is held 
up as an example which fashionably-dressed Christians 
would do well to imitate. He wore a cloak (pallium), 
often patched and threadbare, and was usually unshaven. 
In accordance with a prejudice, not entirely defunct, 
neglect of the person, and even dirt, was associated with 
wisdom; and the pretender to superior knowledge could 
at least be a sloven. People consulted the philosopher as 
their adviser in matters of conscience, and submitted to 
his guidance. Families hired one as a kind of chaplain 
to instruct the children; but the most honoured gave 


150 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


instruction gratis. From Justin’s account of himself in 
the acts of his martyrdom, which have every appearance 
of genuineness, he associated himself with no church, but 
lived in a private apartment, and was ready to receive 
any one who came to him in search of knowledge. He 
published two apologies, and a dialogue with the Jew 
Trypho, and these represent the Christian defending his 
faith to Gentiles and Jews. The Dialogue is, if in some 
places tedious to us, extremely interesting as a descrip- 
tion of how a philosopher could become a Christian. As 
St. Augustine found, two centuries later, Platonism was 
the best introduction to Christianity, and philosophy 
found the solution of its problems in the Faith. Accept- 
ance of Christ is the perfection of philosophy, for He is 
the Logos who had been working for truth among man- 
kind since the foundation of the world: the teacher of 
the wisdom of the Greeks and the barbarians, to whom 
all the sages of antiquity, whether Abraham, Moses, or 
Orpheus, owed their wisdom. The extremely friendly 
attitude of Justin to all wisdom, irrespective of its source, 
is in marked contrast to that of some western teachers, 
to whom philosophy seemed the parent of all error. 


Lawyers as apologists 

We enter a different atmosphere when we pass from 
the philosophers to the lawyers who embraced Chris- 
tianity. Whether Minucius Felix flourished before or 
after Tertullian is here immaterial, as his apology repre- 
sents a less developed condition of the argument between 
the Church and the heathen world. 


The Octavius 

The Octavius is one of the most graceful specimens of 
early Christian literature. It is a dialogue modelled on 
Cicero. Some Roman lawyers go to Baie for a day by 
the seashore; they walk into the sea and then watch 


THE CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS Yad 


some boys throwing stones into the sea. They pass a 
statue of Serapis, and the question whether the god ought 
to be saluted is raised; and they sit on the breakwater to 
discuss it. One of them declares that Fronto of Cirta, 
the philosophic friend of Marcus Aurelius, declares that 
the Christians meet to celebrate the nocturnal orgies of 
popular imagination. The Christian member of the party 
explains what his religion really is: dwelling on its 
brotherliness and the purity it inculcates. Strange to say, 
there is no mention of Christ save one. The heathen ac- 
cuses the Christian of worshipping a dead man. The reply 
is, “If you understood us you would not say so.” The 
religion defended is not dogmatic but a practical Chris- 
tianity, which appealed to the legal mind as a law of life. 


Tertullian 

The great lawyer-apologist is Tertullian. In him we 
have a type of Christianity allied to Puritanism. The 
Christianity of Africa long maintained its character for 
uncompromising antagonism to the pagan world. Its 
martyrs were the most heroic, and its controversialists 
the most relentless, in the early Church. It was the scene 
of the most bitter of schisms—that between the Donat- 
ists and the Catholics; and the source of the most ter- 
ribly logical schemes of Christian doctrine—the predesti- 
narian system of Augustine. Tertullian is the first great 
character in African Christianity, which had an abiding 
influence on its development. 

He has been identified with a lawyer quoted as an 
authority of that name, and he had unmistakably re- 
ceived a legal training. Indeed, he is often unintelligible 
to readers unacquainted with the terminology of the 
Roman law. In his Apology for Christianity he rarely 
stands on the defensive, but boldly attacks his oppo- 
nents. When they make the usual charges against the 


152 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


believers, Tertullian not only denies them, but plainly 
says the heathen are guilty of all and more than all of 
which they accuse the Christians. With true legal in- 
stinct he sees the unreasonableness of applying a differ- 
ent procedure to Christians, if they are criminals, to that 
adopted towards all other lawbreakers. He shows that 
Trajan is absolutely inconsistent in his advice to Pliny, 
not to seek out the Christians and yet to punish them. 
Either they were guilty, and ought to be arrested, or, if 
not sought out, they should be treated as innocent. Such 
a judgment, which necessity had made confused, was un- 
worthy of a lawyer. Tertullian, being both a jurist and 
an enthusiast, had a strong dislike of compromise. He 
shows how absurd it is for people to think that Christians 
were necessarily foes to the Roman Empire. They pray 
daily for the emperor. How could they do otherwise, 
when they believe that if Rome perished, the world would 
come to an end? The whole Apology is a brilliant piece 
of invective—full of phrases which have become im- 
mortal. “If the Tiber is in flood; if there is no flood of 
the Nile . . . forthwith there is a cry, ‘The Christians 
to the lion!’ So many to one lion!” ‘The blood of the 
martyrs is their seed.” ‘The testimony of the soul of 
man is by nature Christian.” Tertullian, as a phrase- 
maker, is only equalled by his countryman St. Augustine. 
He has, however, no patience with philosophy. ‘‘What 
have the porch and the Church in common?” he remarks. 


Celsus 
Fortunately, there have survived parts of a great at- 
tack on the Christian religion made, probably as early 
as the last quarter of the second century, by a philosopher 
~ who already judged it to be of sufficient importance to be 
exposed in a long and elaborate treatise. A certain Celsus, 
otherwise unknown, composed in the time of the Anto- 


THE CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS 153 


nines a book called A True Account (Logos Alethes). It 
was evidently the work of one who had studied Chris- 
tianity widely, if not profoundly. In some places his 
attack is acute, and he has a keen eye for weak spots. 
Celsus begins by cleverly assuming the role of a Jew who 
objects to the new doctrines as a perversion of his ancient 
religion. Suddenly he drops the part, and argues as a 
heathen philosopher. He denies that there is anything 
original in the best part of Christianity—it is shame- 
lessly borrowed from antiquity; the assertion that Jesus 
was God is scouted—other sages did more wonders and 
never made such a claim. The Christian doctrine of the 
Resurrection moves Celsus to ridicule; and so does the 
idea that man is all important in God’s sight. The ants 
might meet and debate on their position in the scale of 
creation with equal propriety. Christianity is an appeal 
to the basest of men. The Mysteries invite the pure in 
heart, but the Christians ask the wicked to join their 
circle. And so Celsus goes on, using every weapon at 
his command to discredit the hated sect. But at the end, 
he lets us into the secret that he is convinced of the 
danger that the new religion is withdrawing the best men 
from public life. If Celsus writes in the days of Marcus 
Aurelius, there was indeed occasion for all good men to 
rally to save the state, and to assist the emperor in his 
noble efforts to do so. So Celsus turns to the Christians, 
and begs them to help the emperor in his council, and 
even to share in his military enterprises (to help him to 
command the army). 


Origen’s reply 

More than fifty years perhaps after its publication, the 
True Account fell into the hands of Ambrosius, a wealthy 
man, who used his money to give Origen’s labours to the 
world. Ambrosius asked Origen to read and answer the 


154 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


book; and he undertook the task with the intention of 
replying in a pamphlet. When, however, he realised its 
importance, Origen devoted his best efforts to refute the 
arguments of Celsus, and produced a great apology in 
eight books. One of its chief merits in our eyes is that 
Celsus is quoted at length and answered, so that we are 
not left in the dark as to what the apologist is trying to 
refute, but have both sides before us. 

Origen is the greatest of the early apologists; and he 
meets some of the difficulties we ourselves feel in regard 
to our faith. He recognises that Celsus has found cer- 
tain weak spots; and although his criticisms are at times 
superficial, they are often real. For example, some of 
the objections raised against popular Christianity are 
valid, others are misrepresentations, because Celsus has 
confounded orthodox beliefs with those of Ophite 
Gnostics. 


The Christians an intellectual force 

Origen’s object in dealing with these is to present the 
highest conception of his religion, as held by those thor- 
oughly instructed in its doctrines, and devoted—for he 
never separates theory from practice—to carry out its 
principles. Enough has been said to show that the Chris- 
tians of the first two and a half centuries were quite 
capable of holding their own with the best educated men 
of their time. The Gospel was at first accepted chiefly 
by those who were, as Paul says, “not wise after the 
flesh”; though this was never applicable to the whole 
body of believers, which at that very time included a 
Paul, a Luke, and the author of the Epistle to the He- 
brews. The Church within a century of Paul’s career had 
begun to draw into its fold men whom, as Celsus recog- 
nised, the Empire could ill spare, and had produced in 
Tertullian and Origen writers who were fully a match for 
the best lawyers and philosophers of their time. 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE PRIMITIVE BISHOP 


Bishops not originally diocesan 

There has been so much discussion as to the apostolical 
succession of bishops; as to the necessity of the order in 
the Church; as to the independence of each individual 
bishop; as to the way in which the authority of the 
episcopate was originally transmitted; as to whether the 
churches had at first democratic or monarchical consti- 
tutions; and as.to the rights of bishops over their clergy, 
that the really interesting subject of what a primitive 
bishop actually did has been disposed to be neglected. 
Before, therefore, attempting to describe the functions 
of a primitive bishop, it may be well to issue a somewhat 
Startling reminder that for many centuries the majority 
of Christians have done without a bishop, and perhaps 
have hardly set eyes on one in their lives. Take any 
map of the dioceses of most Christian countries and it 
will be plain that, as long as the means of communication 
fell in any way short of those we enjoy today, it must 
have been so. A single example will suffice. In England 
the medieval diocese of Lincoln extended from the Hum- 
ber to the Thames. It included the counties of Lincoln, 
Nottingham, Northampton, Leicester, Oxford, and Buck- 
ingham; and it was quite possible that the bishop was 
occupied a great part of his time with his duties as a 
peer of the realm in London, or as a prelate in Rome. 
He, or his deputy, ordained all the clergy, and confirmed 
as many of the laity as possible. His officials adminis- 

155 


156 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


tered the diocese, but only the most prominent of his 
priests and his cathedral clergy could ever come into 
intimate contact with him. Even now a modern bishop 
has to do mainly with his clergy, and the average layman 
only sees him on formal occasions. 


Bishops necessary to thew people 

It was otherwise in the ancient Church. Except in 
Egypt, where the bishop of Alexandria with his twelve 
presbyters exercised jurisdiction over the whole country, 
the bishop was indispensable to all his flock. The bishop 
was, in fact, as necessary to all his people as is the rector 
of a modern parish. Little or nothing could be done 
without him. Ignatius says that no Eucharist should be 
celebrated apart from him. According to the Church 
Orders, which in their present form are late, the Pope 
consecrated the Eucharist and sent the Elements to the 
city churches for distribution. At every baptism he was 
supposed to preside; and the great Easter ceremony took 
place at his exyvn Church of the Lateran. These were sur- 
vivals of the time when the bishop presided in person at 
every great function, perhaps even at every Eucharist. 
It may be that when Polycarp visited Rome, and Anicetus 
the bishop entrusted the mysteries to him, that he did 
the future martyr the honour of permitting him to act as 
the bishop of Rome. Anyhow the rule seems, except in 
Egypt, to have been no church without a bishop. 


Rise of monarchical episcopacy 

The question how monarchical episcopacy arose has 
been hotly debated. If the earliest Churches were syna- 
gogues, they were governed by boards of elders. These 
seem to have been known indifferently as bishops (epis- 
copot) or presbyters (presbuterot). It has been main- 
tained that monarchical episcopacy arose in Asia, at the 


THE PRIMITIVE BISHOP 157 


instigation of the Apostle St. John. All we know, how- 
ever, for certain, is that at an early date each church was 
represented by a single bishop as its ruler. It may be 
conjectured that the tendency of the Christians to recog- 
nise a single leader in each church was natural, and may 
account for its universality. The communities were prob- 
ably small, and it was of supreme importance that unity 
should be maintained in both doctrine and discipline. 


Disputes at Corinth. I Clement 

Of this the primitive church of Corinth is an example. 
It was certainly not episcopal, in our sense of the word, 
in the days of Paul; it was probably not at the end of the 
first century, when the first Epistle of Clement was dis- 
patched to it. But one thing is evident from J Corinthians 
and J Clement: the Corinthian church was as factious as 
any Greek republic of antiquity. When Paul wrote, the 
ministry appears to have been charismatic—men with 
spiritual gifts guided the Church; fifty years or so later, 
there were official bishops and deacons; but in both in- 
stances the Corinthians were rent by intestine discords. 
From the Epistle of Clement, in the name of the Roman 
community, it appears that the younger members of the 
Church had become weary of the rule of the older set 
who filled the chief offices, and that a sort of revolution 
in favour of the juniors had taken place, and a new gov- 
ernment had been established. This the Roman Chris- 
tians regarded as a manifestation of un-Christian jealousy. 
Jealousy, they point out, had ruined states in the past, 
and would prove the ruin of the Corinthian Church, which 
is exhorted to restore its old rulers. An argument from 
Scripture is advanced in support of this advice. A church 
is an Israel, and it was the desire of its apostolic founders 
that it should consist of Priests, Levites, and People 
(the laity z.e., laos, or people of God). To disturb this 


158 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


order was to oppose Scripture, which had promised to 
give Israel “bishops” and “deacons” in righteousness, 
and who consequently were of divine appointment. 


One bishop necessary in the interest of order 

A natural remedy for such disorder was that each 
church should recognise one of its members as its chief, 
and that his decision should be acknowledged by all, and 
loyally supported by the other officers of the church. 
Hence the monarchical episcopate, which soon became 
generally established, and the bishop became literally 
the shepherd of his flock, a common father to all over 
whom he presided. In later times, the councils of the 
Church were directed by the bishops, as heads of the 
different Christian families; and like the Roman Senators, 
these were known as “the fathers” (patres). 


Functions of the bishop 

The primitive bishop was looked up to as not only the 
leader in worship, but as the judge, the dispenser of 
charity, the representative of the world, heathen as well 
as Christian, and the ruler and defender of his people. 
To the outside world he probably appeared as the trustee 
of the property of his church, vested in some legal form 
or other. He was appealed to in all difficulties arising 
among his flock; he pronounced sentence against, and 
absolved, offenders; he saw to the reception of strangers, 
the relief of the afflicted, and all the multifarious acts of 
charity undertaken by the Church. When persecution 
raged he was generally the first to be sought out, and 
often was the first victim. So important a figure did he 
‘appear to the heathen, that, when Decius tried to destroy 
the Church, he said he would rather see a rival to the 
Empire than a new bishop of Rome. 


THE PRIMITIVE BISHOP 159 


Appointment of bishops 

Great obscurity hangs over many things in early Chris- 
tianity which we would gladly know; among others, how 
a bishop was appointed. He had certainly to be ap- 
proved by the flock over whom he was called to preside 
—as a rule the officials had to be formally accepted by 
the people—but whether he was elected by the members 
of his church, or nominated by the neighbouring bishops 
or others, is uncertain. The methods of choosing a bishop 
varied in different places. We do not even know by what 
rite he was ordained to his office. It is certain, however, 
that the bishop was regarded as representing the church 
which had either elected him, or accepted him of its own 
free will. 


The bishop and the presbyters 

Another very obscure point is the relation of the bishop 
to his presbyters. In the Apostolic Constitutions, as in 
the Pastoral Epistles, the presbyters are mentioned, but 
the chief duty seems to fall to the deacons. It is true 
that Timothy is exhorted to give the elders who minister 
in the “word and doctrine” “double honour,” but the 
responsibility of instruction fell on the bishop. Even in 
very late times it is the bishops, not the priests, who are 
blamed for being “unpreaching.” Irenzus, as has been 
observed, dwells on the apostolic succession of doctrine 
in the great churches. In many churches it appears 
doubtful whether the presbyter was really analogous to 
the modern priest, that is as one who may do all a bishop’s 
work except ordain and perform a few distinctly episco- 
pal functions. In a small community the bishop sufficed 
for these, and the presbyters acted as his council. When, 
however, in the middle of the third century, Pope Fabian 
was martyred, and no successor could be appointed, the 


160 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


presbyters of Rome took over the government of the 
church, and acted collectively as representing the bishop. 


Deacons 

The special assistants of the bishop were the deacons, 
who were supposed to stand in a sort of filial relation to 
him. Indeed, the Apostolic Constitutions compare the 
bishop to the Father, and the deacon to the Son, who can 
do nothing ‘‘except he sees the Father do it.” 

Here the deaconess is introduced to make up the 
Trinity, and is likened to the Holy Spirit. Access to the 
bishop for men is by the deacon, and for women by the 
deaconess through the deacon. The Constitutions are not 
primitive, but the crudity of this idea may be. The 
deacons, especially their chief, were a great power in 
every church, and one of them usually succeeded the 
bishop; as financial officers they had more influence than 
_ the priests with most of the congregation. 


Callistus of Rome 

The careers of two bishops in the third century will 
serve to illustrate what has been said above. They are 
so dissimilar that they admirably illustrate different as- 
pects of their office. Yet if St. Cyprian of Carthage had, 
like St. Callistus of Rome, left none of his letters behind 
him, and had been described by St. Hippolytus,—for all 
are accredited as saints—he might not have fared any 
better in the eyes of posterity. The discovery of parts 
of the Refutation of the Heresies or Philosophumena, 
which is now considered the work of Hippolytus, a rival 
of Callistus for the chair of Peter, reveals a most scan- 
dalous story of the early career of Callistus, who began 
‘as a slave and a convict, and, after gaining spurious 
credit as a confessor of Christ, became the confidant of 
Pope Zephyrinus and his successor. It seems also that 


THE PRIMITIVE BISHOP 161 


Callistus incurred not only the displeasure of Hippolytus, 
but also of Tertullian, and was the béte noire of the aus- 
tere party in the Church. But it is not the character, but 
the episcopate of Callistus with which we are concerned. 


His rule as bishop 

Reading between the lines of the denunciation of Ter- 
tullian, and the bitter invective of Hippolytus, it is evi- 
dent that Callistus was a very able man, and that his 
long pontificate, and still longer career of influence in the 
Roman church, has left a permanent mark on the history 
of the episcopate. The old days of rigid discipline, per- 
haps of Greek Christianity in Rome, were passing away, 
and a new age demanded innovations in discipline which 
Callistus was not afraid to undertake. Tertullian’s lan- 
guage shows that the innovating pope was a strong man, 
the Pontifex Maximus—notice that Tertullian gives him 
a heathen title, particularly reserved for the emperor 
himself—has issued an edict, and that a peremptory one, 
“T remit the sin of fornication, etc.” From the use of the 
word edictum, Tertullian is evidently regarding Callistus 
as a Roman pretor, who at the beginning of his tenure 
of office announced how he intended to administer the 
law. He had decided to show what to Tertullian ap- 
peared to be almost criminal leniency to carnal offenders, 
by allowing them to return to the Church after submit- 
ting to penance, following Hermas, whom Tertullian had 
denounced as the pastor moechorum. What is interest- 
ing to us is the legislative power exercised by a bishop, ap- 
parently on his own initiative. Hippolytus confirms this 
when he says that Callistus recognised the marriage of 
free-born women to slaves, and also refused to degrade 
clergy who had fallen on the principle “once a priest 
always a priest.” It has been suggested that there were 
two parties in the church of Rome—the old Greek- 


162 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


speaking church, represented by the highly cultured Hip- 
polytus, which adhered to the severe purity of antiquity 
and retained the aristocratic prejudices against men of 
servile origin, and the newer Christian community, who 
spoke Latin and had more sympathy with the lower 
orders. If the early scandals about Callistus are even 
partially true his later life seems to have been above 
reproach; for Hippolytus only attacks the policy and 
theology, not the morality of the pope. It is certainly to 
his credit, if he had been a grievous sinner, that he showed 
leniency to the fallen, and, if he had been a slave, that 
he took the side of the servile class in the Church. He 
was certainly a man of education, and may be classed 
among those popes, and there were several in later days, 
who were great lawyers as well as ecclesiastics. 


Cyprian 

Very different was the highly-born Cyprian, who as 
almost a, neophyte was made bishop of Carthage. To 
many he is chiefly interesting for his theory of the episco- 
pal office; but here we are concerned rather with his prac- 
tical difficulties than his views. With Protestants he is 
an unpopular saint, because he represents hierarchical 
pretensions; but when his difficulties are considered, he 
must have the sympathy of all good men. 


The Decian persecution 

The persecution of Decius was the supreme crisis in 
the history of the Church; and if not so severe it was 
even more dangerous than the so-called Diocletian per- 
secution. .The Roman world, tired of being ruled by 
Syrians, Goths, and Arabs, had at last a true Roman who 
claimed kinship with the family of Trajan. Decius was 
“an admirer of the ancient religion and morality of the 
Republic. He sought to purify society by reviving the 
ancient office of Censor, to which he appointed Valerian, 


THE PRIMITIVE BISHOP 163 


a man like-minded with himself. For years before his 
accession, the Church had enjoyed comparative freedom, 
and Origen could write, ‘““Few and quite easily counted 
are those who have died for the Christian faith.” 


All ordered to sacrifice 

To be a Christian was at this time no dangerous adven- 
ture, but the acceptance of membership of a society, 
which offered a pure worship and not a little worldly 
advantage. And Decius did not forbid people to con- 
tinue members. He simply ordered everybody to per- 
form an act of sacrifice, and to obtain a certificate that 
they had done so; with this lbellus, as it was called, a 
man was safe. All people were asked to perform was 
an act of loyalty to the Empire: something apparently 
as harmless as saluting the flag. When the order was 
issued everybody complied readily, and even some Chris- 
tians considered they were doing no harm in obeying. 


The “Lapsed” 

A few, however, were more scrupulous, and suffered 
torture and martyrdom. ‘These were regarded as heroes 
by the faithful, and were extravagantly honoured; while 
the weaker brethren discovered that they were apos- 
tates, and forever excluded from the Church. Others, 
less guilty, had purchased /zbellz without committing any 
specific act of apostasy. By church law, no apostate 
could be readmitted to communion, but at this time many 
repented, and showed their contrition by acts of real 
service to the suffering Christians. The confessors who 
were awaiting martyrdom pleaded for leniency, and were 
too honoured to be neglected. Gradually, however, the 
whole affair became a scandal. Confessors in prison even 
issued blank certificates, and the church doors were 
beset by crowds with orders for readmission, though they 
had not given proof of genuine penitence. 


164 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Factions against Cyprian 

This was the situation with which the bishops had to 
deal. In Cyprian we have an example of how a great 
man acted in the emergency. He withdrew from Carthage 
till the persecution had abated, because, with real courage, 
he recognised that he was more needed in those danger- 
ous times as a pilot of the Church than as a martyr. What 
followed is a sad example of the faction and intrigue 
which a Christian bishop might encounter. Five pres- 
byters, headed by Novatus, jealous of Cyprian’s promo- 
tion as a neophyte, formed a cabal against him. One of 
the deacons named Felicissimus, from a district called 
the Mons, in Carthage, made Cyprian’s action towards 
the confessors the occasion of a schism. The Roman pres- 
byters, who administered the Church after the martyrdom 
of Fabian, wrote a letter full of insinuations that Cyprian 
had been unfaithful in withdrawing from Carthage to 
avoid martyrdom, couched in such illiterate Latin that 
Cyprian politely doubted its genuineness. It is impos- 
sible not to admire the statesman-like conduct of the 
bishop at this juncture. Though he held the highest view 
of the authority vested in his office, as given from above, 
he acted with the assent and cooperation of his fellow 
bishops, and took his people fully into his confidence. He 
paid due respect to the confessors and martyrs; but not 
at the cost of discipline, granting readmission to the 
Church if properly demanded, but at the price of penance 
duly performed. His dealings with the outside world 
show how wide were the interests of the bishop of a great 
city. In his controversy with Stephen of Rome about 
rebaptism, he finds his chief ally in Firmilian of 
__ Cappadocia. 
True significance of Cyprian’s career 

Cyprian’s career is far more attractive when studied in 
view of the circumstances of his life, than in the light of 


THE PRIMITIVE BISHOP 165 


his arguments in support of any theory of Church govern- 
ment. It is a great mistake to pronounce him an ecclesi- 
astic, bent on asserting the importance of his order, and 
supporting his views by false scriptural analogies. He 
was striving not to furnish future supporters of episcopal 
authority with arguments, but to prevent the disorder 
and disintegration of the Church. In a persecution so 
insidious as that of Decius, the Christians had to keep 
In unity or perish; and Cyprian is not to be accused of 
narrowness or hierarchical pride, because he saw the 
chief hope of unity to be in a well-ordered episcopate. 
Judged by the light of his time he was a truly great man. 


CHAPTER XVII 
EARLY CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 


The earliest Christians used the synagogue service 

As long as the Christians were still members of the 
Jewish community their worship must have been that of 
the synagogue. Of this we know little except from the 
New Testament; but Jewish scholars assert that the 
Amidah prayer probably antedates the destruction of the 
temple at Jerusalem. All that we can say precisely of 
the service of the synagogue in the days of Christ is 
that it was non-sacrificial and non-priestly, and that it 
consisted of reading of scripture and addresses. Whether 
the ritual resembled that of the modern synagogue we do 
not know; all we can be sure of is that its object was 
the same as that of many Protestant services today, 
namely instruction. The synagogue service took place 
every Sabbath, and was attended not only by Jews but 
by Gentiles as well. Prayer naturally formed part of all 
Synagogue worship, and there can be little doubt that 
the Psalms were extensively used. The Jewish Christian 
had nothing to learn in this respect, or for that matter 
to change, when he accepted the Faith. 


Gentile converts 
It was otherwise with the Gentile converts, who natu- 
rally had to acquire a new language of devotion, although 
some of the prayers which have survived from the Mys- 
teries have, mutatis nominibus, almost a Christian sound. 
But, by the appearance of Christianity, many people were 
166 


EARLY CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 167 


well acquainted with Judaism, and especially with its 
formularies, which were believed to be of magical efficacy. 

What lies before us is to see how it came to pass that 
a distinctly Christian worship was evolved amid the 
Jewish and Gentile elements of which the Church was 
composed. The prayerfulness of Jesus, and his exhorta- 
tion to His disciples to pray, 1s notable in the Synoptic 
Gospels. Two of His prayers are the Lord’s Prayer and 
the prayer after the Supper, before He and His disciples 
went forth to the mount of Olives (Joh. xvii). 


Earliest Christian services and places of prayer 

The Christians from the first observed the Jewish hours 
of prayer, both at Jerusalem and in private houses. They 
had their meeting in the upper chamber at Jerusalem and 
at the house of Mary, the mother of Mark. Outside 
Jerusalem they had evidently meetings of their own for 
purposes of worship; and to the last they attended the 
Temple whenever it was possible. In Acts we have a 
description of a service at Troas. It was held on the first 
day of the week and at night. There were many lights 
in the upper chamber, where the brethren were assembled. 
Paul discoursed at great length, until dawn, then he 
“broke bread,” and having partaken, went forth. From 
this we may infer that a primitive Christian service was 
nocturnal, consisted of exhortation and instruction, and 
culminated in a Eucharistic meal. 


Disorders in Corinth 

In Corinth, as we learn from the Epistles, the meal 
tended to be unseemly, and the services to be character- 
ised by disorderly exhibitions of spiritual gifts, especially 
by that of “tongues.” | 
Christian Prayers and hymns 


In the Pastoral Epistles, prayers carefully classified 
under different names (I Tim. ii, 1-2), are commanded to 


168 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


be made for rulers and the peace of the world. But an 
Important feature in New Testament worship were the 
Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, extracts from which 
are probably preserved in the Pauline Epistles. It may 
be that the worship in heaven and the songs of the angels 
in the Apocalypse are specimens of a very early Christian 
hymnology. Christian prayers tended towards a set 
form as is seen in the Eucharistic prayer preserved 
in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, to be used by all 
except the prophets, who are permitted to give thanks as 
they please. At the end of the first Epistle of Clement 
there is a prayer which is decidedly liturgical, and follows 
the injunction to pray for rulers given in Timothy. But 
there is a disappointing lack of definite information as to 
Christian services or form of prayer till a comparatively 
late date; and no really early service books are preserved. 
We have to wait for centuries before we can find a Latin 
Missal or Breviary. Nevertheless, the form, at any rate 
of the Eucharistic service, was destined early to take a 
definite outline. 


Justin Martyr describes Christian worship 

At the end of his first Apology, Justin Martyr describes 
the Christian rites in language which a heathen could 
understand. First, Baptism in the Threefold Name, 
whereby the convert is transformed by his new birth from 
a child ef necessity and ignorance into one with free will 
and knowledge. Notice here how the convert escapes the 
domination of fate, under which the heathen were 
oppressed. 

After Baptism the candidate is admitted to the Eucha- 
rist and into full communion with the brethren, whose 
‘president, after the prayers, offers the bread and wine 
mixed with water, together with a solemn invocation to 
the Father, through the name of the Son and Holy Ghost. 


EARLY CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 169 


At the conclusion of which the people say Amen. The 
deacons then distribute the two elements to the people 
and carry a portion to the absent. Justin then explains 
that the bread and wine over which the prayer of thanks- 
giving has been said are not common, but have become 
the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. 
He next says that this service was performed every Sun- 
day. People assemble from all places in town and coun- 
try; the “memoirs” of the apostles, or the writings of the 
prophets, were read; the president exhorted the congre- 
gation to follow what they have heard; then came the 
Eucharistic feast, all rising together and praying. Justin 
had before explained that none but baptised persons 
might partake, and only if they are still living as Christ 
commanded. 

Here we have every essential feature of the Christian 
Eucharist in every Liturgy namely, (1) instruction by 
the reading of the works of the apostles or prophets, (2) 
exhortation, (3) a great and solemn dedication of the 
Eucharistic elements. This is common to all offices, from 
the earliest known to the last revision of the Book of 
Common Prayer. It is noticeable that the conduct of 
the worship is entrusted to a “president,” but who he 
was Justin does not specify. 


Worship in the Apostolic Constitutions 

The Eucharist was the centre of Christian worship, 
the pivot round which all revolved; but we are greatly 
in the dark as to the exact ritual or prayers till we reach 
the fourth century and the Apostolic Constitutions. These 
may describe more primitive practices, though the church, 
as contemplated, must have been a more considerable 
building than any very early one could possibly have 
been. 

The Apostolic Constitutions are a compilation of 


170 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Christian precepts, attributed to the apostles, who here 
and there speak in their own name. ‘They contain pass- 
ages from the Teaching of the Twelve Aposiles, the 
Epistle of Barnabas, and, of course, the Pastoral Epistles 
of the New Testament. Their original home is as much 
a matter of dispute as is their date; but, as they stand, 
they are almost certainly oriental. Behind them, besides 
the ancient documents enumerated, there is an old Roman 
Church Order, and the Canons of Hippolytus so called. 
The Church Orders are in different languages, and it is 
difficult to decide what are the really primitive parts; but 
it certainly would appear that the importance of the 
deacon’s connection with the bishop, and a certain vague- 
ness as to the place of the presbyter in church economy is 
ancient, whilst the rules of penance and the elaboration of 
ceremonial are of late date. One can best judge from the 
description of a church service. 


A church service 

The church is to be long, with its head towards the east, 
having vestries on each side. It is to be like a ship, of 
which the bishop is the commander. The bishop’s throne 
is to be placed in the middle, and the presbyters are to sit 
around him, the deacons are to stand in close-fitting gar- 
ments; for they are the navigators. The laity are to be 
placed, the men and women apart. The old may sit, the 
young of both sexes are to stand. The virgins and widows 
are to have specially honourable positions. Doorkeepers 
are to look after the men, a deaconess after the women. 
The deacon is to see that the congregation keeps awake 
and behaves properly. First, the reader is to read the 
__ books of Moses and the Old Testament. Then the Psalms 
of David are to be sung, and the people are to join at the 
conclusion of the verses. After this the Acts and “the 
Epistles of Paul, our fellow worker”—the apostles are 





EARLY CHRISTIAN WORSHIP il 


supposed to be speaking—-are read; and then a priest or 
deacon is to read the Gospels, which “We, Matthew and 
John, have delivered to you, and those by Mark and Luke, 
the fellow workers of Paul.” After the Gospel, the pres- 
byters are to address the people in turn, and the bishop, 
as the commander, is to speak last. The catechumens and 
penitents leave the church at the end of the sermons; all 
are to turn standing towards the east. The kiss of peace 
is then to be given, and the sacrifice to be offered. 


The great Eucharistic prayer 

Peculiar interest is attached to the prayer of Conse- 
cration, which is the origin of the Canon of the Mass and 
the corresponding prayer in every liturgy. It is given in 
the form of an injunction by James, the brother of John, 
the son of Zebedee. The deacon, now that the catechu- 
mens and non-communicants have departed, is to call on 
the congregation to put away all malice against one an- 
other, and to stand upright before the Lord, and in fear 
and trembling to offer the sacrifice. Two deacons are to 
stand before the altar with fans of peacock feathers to 
keep off the flies. The gifts are to be presented, and the 
bishop, with the priests on each side, is to stand before the 
altar. 

The bishop is now called “the High Priest.” He says, 
“The Grace of Almighty God, and the love of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be 
with you all.” The people reply, “And with thy spirit.” 
The High Priest says,—“Lift up your hearts.”” The peo- 
ple,—“‘We lift them up unto the Lord.” The High Priest, 
—“Let us give thanks unto the Lord.” The people,—‘“It 
is meet and right so to do,” etc. The prayer is a very long 
one, and has been greatly abbreviated in the Roman 
Canon; but it contains no mention of saints. 

The Words of Consecration are as follows: ‘For in the 


172 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


same night that He was betrayed, He took bread in His 
holy and undefiled hands, and, looking up to Thee, His 
God and Father, He break it and gave it to His disci- 
ples saying, ‘This is the mystery of the New Covenant: 
take of it and eat. This is my body, which is broken for 
many for the remission of sins!’ In like manner also He 
took the cup, and mixed it with wine and water, and sanc- 
tified it, and delivered it to them saying, ‘Drink ye all of 
this, for this is my blood which is shed for many for the 
remission of sins—do this in remembrance of me. For 
as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do 
show forth my death till I come.’ ” 


Eucharistic services had some invariable characteristics 
Of course these Constitutions cannot be said to repre- 
sent primitive worship; yet there is good reason to believe 
that the Eucharistic service took its main outlines at a 
very early time, and that the churches in different places, 
though they elaborated the ceremonies, did not depart 
from those essential features which are indicated by 
Justin. Special provision is made that the worship shall 
be private, in days when persecution made it impossible 
for the Christians to meet; but in the third century, 
before the Peace of the Church, the Christians had in 
some cities conspicuous buildings for their worship. As 
has been already indicated, the object of most persecu- 
tions was not to prevent the Christian from using any 
form of worship they pleased, but to force them to recog- 
nise the official religion by acts which they considered it 
would be apostasy to perform. Even by the close of the 
second century, according to the testimony of Tertullian 
and the evidence of the Catacombs, the Christians were 
already numerous, and in times of peace the congregations 
may have been as large as the Constitutions suggest. 


aT 


EARLY CHRISTIAN WORSHIP Bio 


Religious exercises 

But the religious practices of the early Church were by 
no means confined to attendance at mass on Sunday. As 
far as was possible the devout spent their lives in wor- 
ship. From a very early time, Wednesday and Friday 
were observed as fasts; the Christian Passover was cele- 
brated from the first; and, despite Paul’s rebuke to the 
Galatians for observing days and months, sacred seasons 
were kept. 


The Sabbath and Sunday 

Many regarded the Sabbath, as well as Sunday, as sa- 
cred. The Apostolic Constitutions order Christmas (25th 
of the ninth month), and Epiphany (6th of tenth month— 
the year began in March), and the fast of Lent to be kept. 
Later on, Peter and Paul are represented as making a law 
that slaves are not to work on the Sabbath or Sunday, in 
Holy Week, or Ascension Day, Pentecost, Nativity, 
Epiphany, and the feasts of Apostles and Stephen the 
proto-martyr. The hours of prayer kept were the Third, 
Sixth, Ninth, Evening, and Cockcrowing. 


Additional acts of devotion 

In his treatise, To a Wife, Tertullian indicates why it 
was almost impossible for a Christian woman to practice 
her religion, if she had married a heathen husband. In 
the first place, she had constantly to absent herself from 
him at night. For the solemnities of Easter she has to be 
away all night. She will be wanting to observe a special 
day of devotion when her husband wants to take her for 
diversion to the baths, to fast when he has a dinner party. 
She must attract notice by her frequent use of the sign 
of the cross, by rising constantly from her bed to pray, by 
visiting the cottages of the poorer brethren, by creeping 
to prison to kiss the chains of a martyr. The honour of 


174 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


the champions of the faith was becoming excessive in the 
second centuries, and already the day on which they 
suffered, their ‘“Nativity” as it was beautifully styled, was 
being solemnly observed. 


Military terms 

The military aspect of Christianity is emphasised in 
the statio, or “mounting guard,” days of fasting or 
prayer observed voluntarily by Christians. The statio, 
says Tertullian, takes its name from its military counter- 
part, ‘“‘for we are the military of God” (militia det). 

It is not very clear how far the Christians observed 
Sunday as a day of abstinence from work. To slaves of 
heathen, and those engaged in many businesses, this must 
have been impossible; and the distinguishing features of 
Sunday observance were the obligation to attend the 
weekly Eucharist, and never to fast on that day on ac- 
count of its joyous reminder of the Resurrection. 


Preaching 

Of preaching, which later became so important in the 
Church, especially in the East, we have little record. The 
so-called homilies, Origen’s for example, are rather lec- 
tures than sermons. We have, however, a very ancient 
specimen of a sermon, probably belonging to the second 
century, in the so-called “second letter” of Clement of 
Rome, which, as the comparatively recent recovery of 
the last part shows, proves really to be a homily. The 
words “And let us not merely seem to believe and pay 
attention now, while we are being exhorted by the Elders,” 
is a curious confirmation of the direction in the Constitu- 
tions that after the Gospel the presbyters should exhort, 
the bishop speaking last. JI Clement is interesting when 
read in this light, and bears a certain resemblance to the 
catholic Epistle of James. 





CHAPTER XVIII 


SCHISMS 


Heresy and Schism 

The chief fault of the Christians, if we may judge by 
the Epistles in the New Testament, was a tendency 
towards splitting into factions. This is often called 
heresy (Heresis); but in later days “heresy” meant error 
in opinion, and “schism” division, generally on some prac- 
tical ground, discipline, authority, and the like. A Gnostic 
or an Arian was a heretic, because, though he professed to 
give the true meaning of the Faith, he held opinions at 
variance with the Christian tradition. A Novatian or a 
Donatist was a schismatic, because he broke off from the 
Church on a question of discipline. As a general rule a 
heretic, like Marcion, is ejected from the Church, and a 
schismatic secedes from it. By a curious irony the two 
greatest schismatics of the West, Tertullian and Novatian, 
were acknowledged to be pillars of orthodoxy so far as 
their theology was concerned. On Tertullian’s account, 
and for other reasons as well, we may classify the Mon- 
tanists as schismatics, rather than heretics, though they 
did not desire to break away. As a rule schisms flourished 
most in the West, and heresies in the East. Even Mon- 
tanism, which arose in Asia Minor, and was there perhaps 
decidedly heretical, became schismatical when trans- 
planted to Rome and Africa. The cause is to be found in 
the inherent difference between eastern and western habit 
ofmind. Inthe East itis speculative, in the West practical. 


The oriental regarded Christianity as a revelation of 


175 


176 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


truth, and was persistently engaged in explaining its 
dogmas. ‘The western Christian was more disposed to 
look on the Church as an institution, and to enquire what, 
were the conditions of membership, and under what laws 
Christians were to be subjected. The East put the ques- 
tion, “What is truth?” The West, “What shall Ido to 
inherit eternal life?” | . 


Paschal Controversy 

The earliest known schism, if we except that of Corinth 
in the days of Clement, was threatened by the Paschal 
controversy. All Christians agreed to keep the Passover 
(Easter), but there were two equally weighty apostolic 
traditions in favour of observing it on the 14th day, or 
always on a Sunday. The Christians of the Province of 
Asia followed the Johannine tradition of keeping the 14th 
day, and those of Rome and the rest of the Christian 
world kept to that of Peter. Victor, as bishop of Rome, 
tried to force Polycrates of Ephesus to induce the Asian 
bishops to abandon their practice, and threatened to ex- 
communicate them when they refused. But Irenzus 
wrote, in the name of the bishops of Gaul, so strong a 
letter of remonstrance, that Victor desisted, and what 
might have been a serious breach in Christian unity was 
averted. 


Montanism 

But at this time a more serious difficulty was arising in 
the form of a religious revival, started by obscure persons 
but destined to win important adherents. A certain 
Montanus, born in an obscure village called Ardabau on 
the borders of Mysia and Phrygia, became possessed by 
a spirit of prophecy, and appears to have traversed the 
country in company with two women, Maximilla and 
Priscilla, who had deserted their husbands. Their preten- 


SCHISMS 177 


sion caused much difficulty to the local bishops; for their 
zeal was undoubted, and their orthodoxy, save for their , 
claim to inspiration, beyond suspicion. The bishops, after ~~ 
careful examination, declared that their prophesyings 
were instigated by the devil, whom they tried unsuc- 
cessfully to drive out. Councils were held to condemn 
Montanism, but the movement spread. So obscure, how- 
ever, were Montanus and his prophetesses that their very 
fate was uncertain. It was reported that they had all 
committed suicide. Eusebius gives the testimony of the 
adversaries of the movement, most of which appear to be 
simply abusive. One thing, however, was certain and dis- 
quieting, the Montanists were distinguished among the 
martyrs. All the Church could say to this was that such 
martyrdoms profited nothing. The Montanists organised 
their community and their teachers; and to the horror of 
the orthodox, accepted salaries. 
Victor and the Montanists 

Some of Montanus’ followers now made their appear- 
ance at Rome, and, if we may believe Eusebius, the mar- 
tyrs of Lyons and Vienne warned Pope Eleutherus against 
them. But in the days of Victor the Roman church be- 
came the centre of controversy. The disputes about the 
Trinity, as well as the Easter question, were agitating the 
community; and, at the same time, some followers of 
Montanus appeared in Rome. They were evidently re- 
ceived by the bishop (Victor is not named) with approval; 
and it is probable that they had modified their practices 
considerably when they left their native country, and 
appeared to be spiritually gifted and specially earnest 
Christians. It is possible that Victor was not in very 
close communication with the Asian episcopate owing to 
the difficulties in regard to the Paschal observance; at 
any rate, it was not till a fellow countryman of theirs, 


178 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


named Praxeas, told the pope about the Montanists that 
they were excluded from the Roman church. 


Tertullian 

The sect found a convert in Tertullian, to whose fiery 
and eminently legal temperament their tenets were ex- 
tremely acceptable; and it is on his account that Mon- 
tanism is of interest. Tertullian’s zeal and genuine devo- 
tion, in addition to his orthodoxy in doctrine, his hatred 
of Gnosticism, his unrivalled power of invective against 
heathen and heretic, his erudition in things sacred and 
profane, made him an ally with which the catholics could 
not dispense. The great champion of the Church, 
Cyprian, called him “The Master”; his defense of the 
doctrine of the Trinity became the touchstone of western 
orthodox belief; and all the Church could do was to re- 
fuse him the title of Saint. 

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that henceforward, 
Montanism was not the somewhat corybantic excesses of 
Montanus, Priscilla and Maximilla, but Tertullian in 
his own person, who is our real authority for the opinions 
of the party to which he attached himself. These are 
briefly as follows: 


Montanist tenets 

(1) The dispensation of Christ had been made pet fect 
by that of the Spirit, as revealed by Montanus. Chris- 
tianity was enriched by the manifestation of the spiritual 
gifts in Montanus, his friends, and his followers. Visions, 
ecstasies, prophetic utterances, were evidences of the new ~ 
power in the Church. 

(2) The old order of ecclesiastical government re- 
" mained, but the clergy had to yield to the spiritually gifted 
men and women who, as prophets, were the true guides of 
the Church. 


SCHISMS 179 


(3) The doctrine of inspiration was not so much that 
of an indwelling spirit transforming men, but of a mighty 
power employing human agency to declare itself. It was 
the old idea that when the prophet spoke, as such, the 
Spirit of God, and not the man, was speaking. When he 
said “Thus saith the Lord” he was possessed by a power 
which spoke through him. The spirit was the bow which 
played the air; the inspired man was but the lyre, a 
passive instrument. 

(4) The Church must go back to primitive severity. 
The Christianity of the day had become a compromise 
with the world. Second marriage, readmission of griev- 
ous sinners to communion, could not be any more tol- 
erated. The laws of God must be literally observed. 

(5) The Christian body consisted of “spiritual” and 
“physical” members, and by the former only could spirit- 
ual things be discerned. 

Tertullian’s Montanism was not unlike more modern 
Puritanism, with the ideal of a perfect Church at cease- 
less war with the world. 


Perpetua and her companions 

It has even been supposed that Tertullian was the 
author of the Acts of Martyrdom of the Africans, Per- 
petua, Felicitas, and their companions, which are the 
most beautiful record of suffering in the early Church. 
Their visions, the implied rebuke of their bishop, the fact 
that there is no mention of the husbands of the two hero- 
ines, and the style employed, are all arguments in favour 
of this supposition, which, if correct, show how these en- 
thusiasts may have been inconvenient, but could not be 
utterly disregarded by the catholics. At any rate, the 
results of Montanism were more permanent than the sect 
in the West. Probably the Church became more hierar- 
chical, prophecy fell into some disrepute, and the written 


180 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Scriptures tended to be more regarded as the norm of 
faith. Certainly the movement discredited Millennarian 
hopes in the early Church. But as the course of history 
shows, the spirit of Montanism never dies. 


Hippolyius and Callistus 

The second schism of importance would have been un- 
known to us but for the discovery of some lost books of 
the Philosophumena, and their assignment to Hippolytus 
of Partus. It has been alluded to before, but may now be 
related in more detail. Callistus, even when the slave of 
Carpophorus in the days of Commodus (A.D. 180-192), 
was evidently a man of some mark.. Though a slave, he 
had been able to start a bank, and to induce the pious to 
subscribe liberally to the enterprise. When he failed, he 
is represented as making desperate efforts to conceal his 
guilt by obtaining, by illegitimate violence, the martyr’s 
crown. Condemned to work in the mines of Sardinia 
(Hippclytus says as a felon), he received his pardon as a 
Christian confessor, and came back to be highly honoured 
by Pepe Zephyrinus, who set him over the great cemetery 
which afterwards was known as the Catacomb of St. 
Callistus. He was the adviser of Zephyrinus during his 
pontificate of seventeen years, and succeeded him as pope. 
At least so say the papal records. But Hippolytus tells a 
different story. Callistus founded a sect, called after him, 
and became their bishop. He had the presumption to call 
this “the Catholic Church,” the true Church being that 
over which Hippolytus presided. Hippolytus has, how- 
ever reluctantly, to admit that Callistus had the majority 
on his side, which he attributes to the lax morality allowed 
by his rival. The little church of irreconcilables led by 
Hippolytus, soon disappeared; but the story, as he tells it, 
shows that the old struggle between antique severity and 
a more lenient treatment of offenders was the cause of 


SCHISMS 181 


this schism, and that Hippolytus was one of those sterner 
Christians of whom Tertullian would have approved. 


Novatianism 

The dissatisfaction at the growing laxity of the Church’s 
rulers slumbered for a while, only to break out again after 
the persecution of Decius, when the Church began to allow 
apostates to return to the fold at the request of the con- 
fessors. It was, in truth, a very strange time for the first 
conspicuously contested papal election. Fabian had been 
martyred by Decius in January 250, and for eighteen 
months the Roman church had not dared to elect a 
bishop. At last, Cornelius reluctantly accepted the dan- 
gerous position, and a rival appeared in Novatian or 
Novatus, for he is called by both names. The story is 
obscure, and the only authority is a letter from Cornelius 
to Cyprian. According to Cornelius, Novatian had only 
received baptism on his sick bed, which was considered 
as in itself a disqualification for office; that he was a 
presbyter of the Roman church who had withdrawn from 
active work during persecution, and had refused to emerge 
from his retirement to assist his suffering brethren on the 
plea that “he was attached to another philosophy”— 
probably ascetic practice; that he sent for bishops from 
southern Italy, and procured ignorant men to consecrate © 
him. Whether these charges are true is open to doubt. 
Dionysius of Alexandria wrote a brotherly letter begging 
Novatian to retire in the interests of the peace of the 
Church. But, whatever his motives were, Novatian was 
a remarkable man, a prolific writer, and, as the spread of 
his schism evinces, of great influence. He had the sym- 
pathy of at least one of the patriarchal bishops, in Fabius 
of Antioch. By the Council of Nicza, Novatianism seems 
to have been widespread, and one of its bishops was 
specially invited by Constantine to be present. The or- 


182 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


thodoxy of the sect was beyond question, and its testi- 
mony was highly valued for its independence of catholic 
influence by the supporters of the Nicene Creed. The 
bon mot of the Emperor Constantine—“Take a ladder, 
Acesius, and go to heaven by thyself,” reveals its ultra 
puritan character. For a long time there was a Novatian 
church in Constantinople, living on more or less friendly 
terms with the catholics owing to its opposition to 
Arianism. 


Donatism 

A more melancholy exhibition of the schismatic temper 
was shown in Donatism, which reveals the unbending 
nature of the African Christians. Its history is the old 
story of dissatisfaction at the lenity of the catholic church. 
It arose out of the Diocletian persecution, and turned on 
the question whether a bishop, Felix of Aptunga, who 
consecrated Cecilian of Carthage, was able to confer 
episcopal authority if he had apostatised by delivering up 
the Scriptures to the heathen. Two councils acquitted 
him, but could not convince the African church of his inno- 
cence. The majority of the Christians of the province 
joined in repudiating the rest of the Church which ac- 
knowledged Cecilian, and raised the whole question of 
the nature of the Church. The history of Donatism be- 
longs to the period after Niczea, but the schism itself was 
caused by the peculiar circumstances of the days of per- 
secution, when apostasy was the greatest of sins. The 
contention of the Donatists was that those guilty of it, 
if clergy, were deprived of all the grace conferred by 
ordination; they could not confer spiritual gifts or per- 
form legal sacraments. All who communicated with them 
. fell under the same disability. Thus every church but 
the Donatists had lost its power, and ceased to be a 
church. The schism was a local one. No one seems to 


SCHISMS 183 


have joined it out of Africa, but it was amazingly bitter 
there, and the catholics were, till the appearance of St. 
Augustine, a persecuted minority. The country under the 
Donatists became a scene of disorder; they committed 
crimes of violence on their opponents, and insulted them 
in every possible manner. Constantine tried to restore 
order by force, but persecution made the sect all the 
fiercer. They had begun by appealing to the emperor; 
but when they found his decision to be adverse, they 
cried “‘What has the emperor to do with the Church?” 
Their spirit was that of martyrdom pushed beyond the 
limits of charity: it asserted the complete independence of 
the Church, and denied the right of the secular power to 
prevent them from wreaking vengeance on their oppo- 
nents. Donatism was conquered in the fifth century by 
Augustine, before whose death the Vandals came and in- 
volved catholics and Donatists (whose faith was the 
same) in a common fate. Once, in the sixth century, it 
revived, and in the seventh, Christianity in Africa went 
down in the flood of Mohammedan invasion. 


CHAPTER XIX 


THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY 


Gnostic followed by Trinitarian Controversy 

Gnosticism was at its height towards the close of the 
second century; but as the Catholic Church developed its 
Organization, or, as in Marcion’s system, took a more 
Christian form it waned. The result of the conflict was to 
establisn among Christians a belief in the actual histori- 
cal manifestation of Jesus as the Word made flesh. The 
ground was thus cleared for an enduring controversy, 
first as to His relation to God, and then to man. 


Consequence of Docetism 

The Gnostics had laid undue emphasis on one impor- 
tant aspect of the revelation of God through Christ, which 
the Church had never failed to recognise, namely, that 
the redemption of man was not an isolated fact in human 
history; but part of an eternal process. They had pushed 
this idea to such an extent that the human figure of the 
Christ disappeared in an abstraction, so that His life 
became nothing more than a phantasy by which God’s 
nature and purpose was revealed to man. This was 
Docetism; and it was overthrown by the credal profession 
that Jesus was truly born, truly suffered, and had risen in 
bodily form. At the same time Christian piety demanded 
that He should be acknowledged as truly God, and that 
the belief that God is One should remain unshaken. 


-' Modern Unitarianism unknown 
Rightly to understand the controversy which raged 
within the Church over the doctrine of the Trinity, it is 
184 


THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY 185 


necessary to divest the mind of modern prejudice as re- 
gards what is known as Unitarianism. Those who now 
find it difficult to believe in the Trinity in Unity do so for 
reasons as a rule critical or intellectual. They may argue 
that there is no warrant for the dogma in Scripture; that 
the passages adduced are not genuine, or are misunder- 
stood; that it was not the original belief of the Chris- 
tians, etc. Or they may declare that it is not consistent 
with intellectual honesty to accept a dogma which is self- 
contradictory, or to represent Jesus as more than a 
highly gifted religious teacher. For in the controversy, 
the question is mainly Christological, turning on the rela- 
tion of Christ to God. But the ancient Monarchians were 
neither Socinians nor Unitarians; they argued from dif- 
ferent premises; and their whole attitude was alien to that 
of modern days. Yet we shall find that they are charged 
by their opponents with rash criticism and intellectual 
arrogance, much as Modernists now are. 


A “human” Christ not sought 

But in the earliest days of the Church the tendency 
was not so much to create a purely human Christ as to 
make the Lord far less so than He appears in the New 
Testament. That Jesus was supernaturally born of a 
Virgin presented no difficulty. It was harder to believe 
that He was born at all. The facts of the life were what 
troubled all the Gnostics down to Marcion, because they 
were too subject to worldly and material conditions. No 
one, not even the Jewish believers, had any difficulty in 
accepting the supernatural or divine element in the Christ. 
“The Jew sought after a sign.” That is, he demanded 
something which was more miraculous than what Jesus 
offered. If He pronounced Him an impostor, it was be- 
cause He did not supernaturally deliver Himself and the 
nation. To the Hebrew, there was no difficulty in God 


186 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


speaking in the person of aman. Indeed that is what He 
had done in the prophets of old. The Jew was even war- 
ranted by his Scriptures in believing that God had ap- 
peared docetically in human form, as he did to Abraham 
or Gideon. What proved the real stumbling block to him 
was, that Jesus was God as well as the Father. It was 
to him a way out of the difficulty to believe that Jesus was 
the Christ, a man possessed by the Spirit of the Father, 
through whom God revealed His will to man. 


Adoptionist teaching 

Here we have one of the most enduring heresies re- 
garding the person of Jesus and His place in the divine 
economy, that of Adoptionism. God chose Jesus of 
Nazareth as a man peculiarly fitted to reveal His will to 
the world. The moment at which this was done was the 
baptism. There the Spirit came upon Jesus, and the voice 
from Heaven proclaimed ‘“Thou art my beloved Son, this 
day have I begotten Thee,” or ““Thou art my beloved Son, 
in thee am I well pleased.” There were thus two divine 
elements, God and the Spirit, and one human element, 
namely the man Jesus, whom they had chosen. Even if 
Gentile theologians accepted this, they did so, consciously 
or unconsciously, under Jewish influence. The Gentile 
was accustomed to the idea of God becoming man, and 
also to that of man becoming God. He could well under- 
stand how every appearance of a god was the Divine being 
revealing under different forms. | 


The economic trinity 

Thus, the view of what is called an “economic” Trinity 
was not unacceptable to those who regarded the mystery 
as explicable by saying that God manifested Himself in 
three aspects—those of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and 
that this threefold conception of Him was, as it were, a 


THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY 187 


temporary expedient or part of the Divine Economy to 
reveal the One God to the world. 


General interest in the controversy 

But neither of these explanations satisfied the con- 
Science of the Church; though the rejection of either in- 
variably forced some into the extreme opposed to it. 
That such a difficult philosophical problem should be con- 
fined to the educated class of believers might be expected; 
but subsequent history shows the reverse to have oc- 
curred. The people were generally interested in the dis- 
cussion, and strong passions were excited. It was not an 
affair of bishops and scholars, but one of interest to the 
whole Church. It is a mistake to suppose that these 
controversies only affected the clergy. On the contrary, 
theology engrossed the attention of all. 


Origin of the Trinitarian controversy 

When the work of Ireneus at the close of the second 
century is compared with that of Tertullian and Hippo- 
lytus in the third the progress of the Trinitarian contro- 
versy is evident. All are opposed to Gnosticism, but with 
Irenzus it is far more real than with the two later writ- 
ers. To Tertullian, Praxeas and to Hippolytus, the Ro- 
man Monarchians, are the danger. The period begins 
with the pontificate of Victor; but the harbingers of the 
controversy are an Asiatic sect known to us through 
Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, who died early 
in the fifth century. Because they denied the doctrine of 
the logos, Epiphanius calls them the Alogoi—men without 
reason. We know very little about the Alogoz except that 
they were opposed to Cerinthus, the Gnostic, on the one 
hand, and to Montanism on the other. They denied that 
the Gospel, Epistle, and Apocalypse, were by the Apostle 
John, and attributed them to Cerinthus. They upheld the 


188 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Marcan tradition that the Gospel really begins with the 
baptism, and they declared that the prophetic dispensa- 
tion had entirely come to an end. 


Theodotus and the “dynamic” Monarchians 

At the beginning of the pontificate of Victor, about 190, 
a native of Byzantium named Theodotus came to Rome 
as a teacher. He was admitted by all to be a very learned 
man, thoroughly acquainted with the exact sciences. He 
taught that Christ was born of the Virgin by the operation 
of the Holy Spirit, but for all that was no more than a 
man, by whom the Spirit worked. Possibly this Theo- 
dotus, known as “the leather-worker,” was a disciple of 
the same school as the Alogoz; but he differed from them 
by accepting the Fourth Gospel. He was accused of say- 
ing that Christ was a mere man, basing his teaching, 
not so much on Scripture, as on Aristotle, Euclid, and 
Galen. His exegesis, it was objected, was unspiritual and 
hypercritical, paying more attention to grammatical and 
textual problems than to the spiritual meaning. In the 
end, Victor cut Theodotus and his followers off from 
communion with the Church. They tried to start an inde- 
pendent congregation, and hired a man named Natalius 
to act as their bishop, but Natalius recanted and the sect 
disappeared. 


Theodotus claimed to represent the earlier tradition of 
Rome 

The opinions of Theodotus were carried on by a name- 
sake—Theodotus “the Banker,” and Artemas (or Arte- 
mus), who maintained that his opinions represented the 
true Roman tradition which had been corrupted in the 
' days of Victor’s successor Zephyrinus. This may be justi- 
fied by the fact that Hermas, in the Shepherd, appears to 
assert that Jesus was human and the spirit divine. The 


THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY 189 


school of Theodotus, representing what theologians call 
“dynamic” Monarchianism, made way for the Trinitarian 
theories of Praxeas and Sabellius, which are known as 
modalistic. From the Philosophumena of Hippolytus, it 
appears that this father and his followers rejected Pope 
Callistus as unorthodox, for trying to mediate between the 
two extremes. The schism thus created vanished as com- 
pletely as the faction over which Natalius had tempo- 
rarily presided. Still the rigorist party to which Tertul- 
lian, Hippolytus, and Novatian belonged, were uncompro- 
mising Trinitarians, allowing no theories which attempted 
to rationalise the mystery; and if they failed to impose 
their discipline on the Church they gave it their theology. 


Praxeas 

Praxeas appeared as the accuser of the Montanists in 
Rome. In Tertullian’s epigrammatic language, Praxeas 
“expelled prophecy and introduced heresy, sent the Spirit 
into banishment and crucified the Father.” Except for 
Tertullian’s treatise, Praxeas is unknown, and it may be 
that the name is given to some more notorious teacher, 
e.g., Noetus. His theory was that it was the one God who 
assumed the form of the Son and was crucified. For this 
reason Tertullian gave the school the name of Patripas- 
sians (the Father suffered), to show the absurdity of their 
doctrine. Callistus, according to Hippolytus, belonged to 
this party; and here we seem to gain an insight into the 
doctrinal attitude of the Roman church, which has always 
been characterised by its preference for practical Chris- 
tianity rather than abstract truth. The Modalists de- 
clared that the Father became the Son by assuming human 
flesh; and Callistus is said to have offered an explanation, 
as a via media, that the Father suffered with the Son. 
Both he and his predecessor Zephyrinus whom he advised, 
_ appear to have been statesmen rather than theologians, 


190 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


and to have tried at all costs to avert the schism which 
men of the type of Hippolytus had no scruple in precipi- 
tating; nor can it be said that they were altogether to 
blame in thinking that unity could be too dearly pur- 
chased by insisting on the most mysterious dogmas, in 
which finality appeared to be impossible. 


Sabellius 

The controversy now shifted from Rome to the more 
congenial soil of the East. Sabellius is said to have been 
a native of the Libyan Pentapolis. Rome, however, where 
he was excommunicated by Callistus, was the chief scene 
of his teaching. Whether he left the city is uncertain; but 
his views became extremely popular in the Pentapolis, and 
his theology was the bugbear of the eastern teachers who, 
throughout the fourth century, were obsessed by fear of 
Sabellianism. Speaking generally, Sabellius considered 
God to be absolutely one, who was revealed in three 
Prosépa (the word means a mask, a character in a 
drama). These three were Father, as Creator, Son, as 
Saviour, and Holy Spirit. It is possible that Sabellius 
used the expression Homoousios to express the essential 
unity of the three Prosdépa, which would account for the 
distrust of the word even after it had been incorporated 
in the Creed by the Council of Nicea. At any rate, 
throughout the Arian controversy it is evidently Modal- 
ism, or the teaching that Father, Son, and Spirit, are 
but temporary revelations of God, that was so strenuously 


opposed. 


Jesus and the Logos 

The question which really touched the piety of Chris- 
tians was the identity of the Logos and Jesus. This is the 
teaching of the Fourth Gospel, that the Word was with 
God in the Beginning, and that all things were made by 





THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY 191 


Him. Also that the Word was made flesh. Jesus, then, 
was the incarnate Word: but what did this mean? In 
the first place, what is the Word? In the second, what is 
meant by the Word becoming flesh? Sabellius said, prac- 
tically, because the Word is God, there is no distinction 
between the One and the Word. On the other hand, the 
more orthodox said that the Word is distinct from the 
Father though they are inseparable, for the Father is 
always begetting the Word. This was Origen’s view, but 
to maintain the distinction he inclined to subordinate the 
persons in the Trinity to one another. 


The two Dionysiu 

This was the trend of Alexandrian theology, and led to 
a most interesting correspondence between Dionysius of 
Rome, and his namesake of Alexandria. Dionysius of 
Rome received a report that the bishop of Alexandria had 
erred in three particulars. (1) He was accused of deny- 
ing that the Son was not always Son, or saying that once 
the Son was not; (2) of naming the Father without the 
Son, and the Son without the Father; (3) of denying that 
the Son was of one substance with the Father, but was 
alien (xenos) in substance (ousia). ‘This, according to 
Dionysius of Rome, was to teach Tritheism, z.e., that 
Father, Son, and Spirit were three Gods. The Alexan- 
drian answered these objections by an appeal to the creed 
of the Church. He did not use the expression komoousios, 
because it is not in Scripture; he could not, by his very 
use of the word Father, have ignored the Son. But what 
is really important to us is that the esteem in which 
Dionysius was held a century after his death caused 
_ Athanasius to write in his defence, as is also the tone of 
the Roman letter. The pope is less concerned with the 
speculative error than with its practical consequences, 
such as the encouragement of Marcionism. Harnack 


192 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


points out that the letter is the same in tone as the Tome 
which Leo the Great sent to Flavian, bishop of Constanti- 
nople, in the fifth century, and resembles Pope Agatho’s 
letter to the emperor Constantine IV in the seventh cen- 
tury. The tradition of the great western see persisted 
from a very early date. 


Paul of Samosata 

The most startling phenomenon in the early Trini- 
tarian controversy was the condemnation by the Church 
of Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, the third prelate 
in the Christian world. Since the days of Ignatius, and 
long after Bishop Paul’s day, the Christians of Antioch 
held the humanity of Christ to be of the highest impor- 
tance. It was at Antioch that Ignatius learned to regard 
docetism—the denial of the reality of the Lord’s human 
existence—as the worst of heresies; and in the fifth cen- 
tury, Nestorianism erred in its excessive insistence on the 
human nature of the Christ born of the Virgin. The 
heresy of Paul was his refusal to completely identify the 
Word of God with Jesus. He was accused of refusing to 
allow hymns to be addressed to the Saviour. His doc- 
trine, in brief, was that God consists of Father, Son, and 
Spirit. Jesus was Himself a man, and no more, but by 
His pre-eminent goodness He was made the receptacle of 
the Divine Word. According to an expression of Paul’s, 
quoted by Harnack, Jesus could not have been “good,” 
In our sense of the word, unless He had enjoyed some 
power of choice; for “what is attained by nature has no 
merit”; which may mean—if Jesus was from all eternity 
God the Word, He was by nature impeccable. Now it is 
no merit to be perfect, if naturally perfect, any more than 
it is meritorious to be naturally clever. In other words, 
the more truly human our Lord is, the more valuable is 
He to us, if He were “tempted, yet without sin.” But the 


THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY 193 


theologians of the age were more interested in Christ as 
the revealer of the Father, as the Word made flesh, than 
as the exemplar of human life. The important thing in 
their eyes was the identification of the Jesus of history 
with the eternal Logos. Consequently, Paul was deposed 
by a synod of bishops at Antioch, in 269, and their sen- 
tence was ratified by the Emperor Aurelian. From that 
time the pre-existence of Jesus as the Word became, irrev- 
ocably, a part of the dogma of the Church. 


Modern contempt for dogma unreasonable 

One of the besetting sins of modern theologians is that 
they are inclined to neglect the study of dogmatics, and 
in their zeal to assert what the Church ought to teach, 
neglect to ascertain what it actually declares. They there- 
fore deprecate the long controversies as to what ought to 
be believed as waste of energy which could have been 
better applied. But it is at least worth enquiring 
whether the importance of the questions disputed did not 
justify the care bestowed in trying to solve them. The 
best answer is the simple fact that they are as pressing 
today as they were in the primitive Church. It is of the 
highest importance for us to decide whether in Jesus God 
was really manifested, whether He offered us a real salva- 
tion, or simply gave us a morality more or less superior to 
that of other teachers. It is still of interest to determine 
whether He appeared a God on earth, acting, talking, and 
suffering as though He were a man, whereas He was noth- 
ing of the kind; or whether He bore our nature, and 
shared our sorrows and temptations in the truest sense. 
The “fathers” faced these problems honestly. They may 
have employed a language which is that of philosophy we 
can hardly appreciate; their arguments, their exegesis, 
may not be what we can use or assent to; but at least they 
saw the problems and presented them to the best of their 


194 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


ability. Yet, when all is said, the manly exercises of the 
mind by the Fathers, the Schoolmen, the Theologians, are 
healthier than the sentimentalities of some modern teach- 
ers, who, when they try to be up to date, don the discarded 
garments of a Theodotus or Paul of Samosata, and try 
to persuade us that they are presenting us with some- 
thing that is entirely new. 





CHAPTER XX 


EARLY CHRISTIAN LEARNING 


Christianity and intellectual activity 

The new religion gloried in its simplicity; it appealed 
to the childlike character of its converts; it repudiated the 
wisdom of this world. What it demanded was faithful 
adherence to the precepts of One who describes Himself 
as “meek and lowly of heart.” Ata later date it set itself 
against secular learning. But this did not prevent its 
attracting or retaining some of the best minds of the age 
in which it was making its most startling conquests. Its 
doctrines, simple as they appeared at first, in the end 
stimulated intense intellectual activity, and exercised the 
mind on the profoundest of problems. ‘This has been 
often considered a drawback to the promotion of pure 
Christian belief, morality, and conduct; but it is unde- 
niable that the greatest of Christian thinkers have not 
been as a rule backward in these respects, and piety and 
morals have never flourished in days of intellectual stag- 
nation. The Christian community in the first three cen- 
turies was fairly representative of its time—it included the 
poor and ignorant, though it relieved the one and edu- 
cated the other; most of its adherents belonged to the 
middle class, and at its head were people who were well 
qualified to take a high place in the contemporary world 
of intellect. In this the members of the Church could 
generally hold their own. 

195 


196 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Athenagoras the Apologist 

The Apologies are written by well-read men conversant 
with the literature of ancient days. As Athenagoras was 
omitted when the apologies were discussed he may here 
be mentioned. As literary productions of some skill, 
both his Apology and his treatise On the Resurrection 
justify his being entitled a philosopher and a Christian, 
and it is evident that no one who was unacquainted with 
polite letters could have written them. 

The Apology, or Embassy (presbeia), for the Christians, 
addressed to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Com- 
modus, is an elaborate defense of the Christians designed 
for men who were not only emperors but, as Athenagoras 
says, philosophers. It is not a popular apology; but one 
made by a scholar for scholars. The unity of God is 
shown to have been upheld by the poets (Euripides’ lost 
plays are quoted), as well by the philosophers Plato and 
Aristotle. There is much learning expended over the 
names and images of gods being modern in origin. 
Athenagoras evidently has Homer at his fingers’ end; he 
quotes Herodotus, Hesiod, Pindar, Callimachus, within 
the compass of a very small treatise. 


Teacher at Alexandria 

A tradition, not of much value, says that Athenagoras 
was head of the Catechetical School at Alexandria. Here 
were the great lights of learned Christendom, the most 
widely read of whom was Clement. Origen is pre-eminent 
as a biblical scholar, and in Dionysius one seems to find — 
all the qualities which ought to characterise an erudite — 
Christian. 


Clement of Alexandria 
Something has already been said of Clement’s scheme 
of education and his literary labours. Here it is neces- 





EARLY CHRISTIAN LEARNING 197 


sary to confine ourselves to his wide culture and immense 
reading. Like many other learned men he has given pos- 
terity a record of teachers whose names would otherwise 
have perished, because they left behind them disciples 
rather than books. Pantzenus, ‘‘the Sicilian bee,”’ was his 
predecessor at Alexandria, and the master to whom he 
owed so much. He was educated as a heathen, which 
accounts for the difference between him and Origen, the 
great genius who succeeded him. His life was that of a 
scholar, uneventful, and somewhat detached from the 
controversies of his age. But he never forgot the prac- 
tical side of Christian life, or the seriousness of its high 
calling. 


Wide reading of Clement 

What distinguishes Clement is the variety of his read- 
ing. He was, in his heathen days, eclectic as a philoso- 
pher, and equally so as a student. His works are a per- 
fect mine of quotations from lost authors, including the 
comic dramatists. ‘The profundity of his knowledge has 
been questioned, and it is at least possible that some of it 
was second hand and uncritical; but this does not detract 
from the fact that Clement was a very learned man. He 
had, by his own account, travelled far in search of teach- 
ers, finally discovering Pantzenus as his last and best mas- 
ter at Alexandria. Like many others who have read 
much and devoted their energies to a cause, rather than 
to exact scholarship, Clement may have been careless in 
his use of his authorities; but he was certainly a con- 
spicuous example of how a Christian writer could meet 
the heathen with their own weapons. It is a remarkable 
fact that three great Alexandrians, two Christians— 
Clement and Origen, and Plotinus, the Neo-Platonist, all 
ended their careers outside the city where they had estab- 
lished their reputation. Like Origen, Clement spent his 
last days in Syria. 


198 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Books quoted in the address to the Greeks 

As an example of the use of the classical authors by a 
Christian apologist one may take the Address to the 
Greeks, attributed to Justin Martyr. It is quite a short 
treatise, but it is one continuous appeal to the poets, of 
course pre-eminently to Homer, and to the philosophers 
from Thales onwards. The differences between Plato and 
Aristotle are carefully noted. Josephus and Philo are 
used, as was customary, to prove that the antiquity of the 
teaching of Moses was recognised by the sages of Greece; 
Orpheus is quoted at length to prove God’s unity, which 
is also taught by Plato and Pythagoras. The writer, it 
may be added, knows not only the Timeus, a book much 
studied by Christians, but quotes Plato’s Phedrus and 
Republic. He relates how he visited Cumez, and how his 
guide showed him all the sights of the basilica of the Sibyl. 
But enough has been said to prove that the Christians, in 
order to meet their opponents, equipped themselves with 
all the available learning of their age, and though their 
arguments are often stereotyped, they were calculated to 
convince those to whom they were addressed. 


Origen the Hexapla 

Origen, as a scholar, would have been as great a won- 
der in any age as he was in his own. As has been indi- 
cated above, he received the best education of his time; 
for his father Leonides had recognised and fostered his 
remarkable abilities. His knowledge of the learning of 
his age is attested by his disciples, notably by Gregory 
Thaumaturgus; but here it may be well to dwell on his 
methods of scholarly investigation, which no one without 
a careful education could have pursued, and are surpris- 
‘ingly modern in their thoroughness. Dissatisfied with the 
text of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, 
Origen projected a vast work to enable scholars to find 


Coe a ee eS Pe Te ge Oe ee 





a ee 


ne ae ae, a ea eel 5 


EARLY CHRISTIAN LEARNING 199 


out the truth about the exact language of Scripture. He 
was able, in a measure, to overcome the initial difficulty 
of learning Hebrew; for the Jews jealously guarded their 
language, and many Christians seem to have regarded it 
as heretical to study it. But Origen’s acquaintance with 
Hebrew does not seem to have been profound, and his 
derivation of words is often absurd. Still he had suffi- 
cient knowledge to produce a Hebrew version transliter- 
ated into Greek, which necessitated some acquaintance 
with the vocalisation accepted by the Jews; for the He- 
brew version was unpointed. In his search for other 
Greek translations, in addition to those of LXX, Aquila, 
Theodotion and Symmachus, which with the Hebrew, and 
the Hebrew in Greek letters, made the Hexapla, Origen 
wandered far and wide. He found three more versions, 
one in a jar in Jericho, and two others in Nicopolis in 
Greece. | 

Eusebius has preserved Origen’s critical remarks on 
the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews. ‘It is not,” 
he says, “‘in the style of Paul, who acknowledges that he 
is ‘rude in speech’ (II Cor. xi, 6), but its diction is purer 
Greek. The thoughts, however, are worthy of the 
apostle.” Origen thinks that the Epistle is by a disciple 
who remembered his master’s teaching. ‘There are those 
who hold it was by Paul, as no tradition is without cause. 
Some attribute it to Clement, others to Luke. ‘But who 
wrote the Epistle God knows.” Unfortunately the com- 
mentary from which the extract is taken is lost, but the 
fragment is a good example of scholarly discernment in a 
reverent Christian critic. 


Dionysius of Alexandria 

Dionysius of Alexandria gives an even more interesting 
example of a scholar’s estimate of the Revelation of St. 
John. He appears to have been one of the wisest and 


200 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


most amiable men who ever adorned the episcopate. He 
was most highly esteemed by Eusebius of Cesarea, and 
in after days his successor Athanasius wrote to defend his 
orthodoxy in the matter of the doctrine of the Trinity. 
In every controversy in which he was engaged Dionysius 
emerges with credit for his charitable and large-minded 
view of the point at issue. As a scholar he appears to 
great advantage in his controversy with the Millenarians 
of Egypt, who held, following a bishop named Nepos, that 
there would be a reign of a thousand years of worldly 
prosperity for the saints under Christ. 


The authorship of the book of Revelation 

The book in which these views were expressed was 
called the Refutation of the Allegorists. Nothing can 
exceed the courtesy of Dionysius’ treatise in reply. He 
speaks of Nepos in terms calculated to calm his admirers, 
and refutes his arguments by an appeal, not in the usual 
controversial style, to prejudice and passion, but to 
scholarship. The way he proves that the Apocalypse was 
not by the hand of the author of the Fourth Gospel is one 
of the best specimens of ancient criticism. He admits 
that the writer of the Apocalypse was inspired and that 
his name was John; but from the language and the entire 
character of the book, it could not be the work of John 
the son of Zebedee, who was the author of the Fourth 
Gospel and the first Epistle. There were probably there- 
fore two Johns in Asia, the Apostle and the Seer. Euse- 
bius gives the argument in a long chapter of his history 


(vii, 25). 


Hippolytus and the Philosophumena 

Turning to the West, but not yet to the Christians who 
employed Latin, Hippolytus is a good example of learning 
in a great churchman. His attack on Gnosticism is quite 





EARLY CHRISTIAN LEARNING 201 


different from that delivered by Irenzus, the object being 
to show that the heresies are, not so much unapostolic 
novelties, as the republication of pagan philosophies in a 
new guise. The style of Hippolytus has led some to be- 
lieve that the Philosophumena is not so much a formal 
treatise as a series of lecture notes collected by a disciple; 
and certainly Hippolytus does display, sometimes, signs of 
the artifices of the lecturer rather than the technique of a 
writer. However, the treatment of the subject, even if 
but undertaken with but moderate success, demands con- 
siderable learning, and Hippolytus certainly covers a wide 
field. In his fourth book, to take an example, he treats 
of diviners and magic. Much is said to be quoted from 
Sextus Empiricus, but it is very curious and interesting 
reading, especially as regards the measurements of the 
heavens and the distances of the planets from the earth, 
the characters of those born under the different signs of 
the Zodiac, and the significance of the numerals in names. 
Hippolytus also exposes the tricks of the magicians, writ- 
ing with invisible ink, magical incantations and the like. 
His quotations are numerous and varied. And, as the 
Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans presupposes anything 
but an ignorant community of Christians in the city, so 
the lectures of Irenzus and Hippolytus demanded an edu- 
cated audience: for those controversies with Gnostics and 
later heretics could only have taken place among people 
capable of appreciating the points at issue. Christianity 
was attracting the educated, and one of the chief criticisms 
levelled against it by modern writers is that it had by the 
third century become too much interested in intellectual 
problems. 


Tertullian and secular education 
The chief opponent of philosophy, Tertullian, was cer- 
tainly not open to the reproach of being ignorant of the 


202 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


secular wisdom which he despised. Yet it is remarkable 
that in his work on /dolatry, in which he is perfectly un- 
compromising on most points, and lays down rules which 
no Christian could observe without almost entirely with- 
drawing from social life, he cannot forbid the education of 
children in the usual way, which, of course, included the 
study of heathen mythology. This, indeed, was one of the 
great difficulties under which the Church laboured. It 
was a choice between pagan education or none. For edu- 
cation then, and on to almost yesterday, meant practically 
the Greek and Latin classics, and aimed at correct ex- 
pression. Science, mathematics (which, by the way, usu- 
ally mean astrology), lay outside the ordinary curriculum: 
to be educated it was a sine qua non that a man should 
have his classical authors at his finger tips, and should be 
able to quote them on every occasion. The system of 
education, like the Roman law, was so strongly organised 
that, at most, Christianity influenced it, without really 
penetrating beyond its surface. 


Tertullian’s extensive reading 

Like many lawyers, Tertullian was a man of miscellane- 
ous reading, and his writings abound in curious illustra- 
tions of his subject. These are conspicuous in his trea- 
tises on the Soldiers’ Crown and On Baptism. For exam- 
ple, he ends the argument that a soldier should not wear 
a crown by an allusion to initiation to the Mysteries of 
Mithra, where the candidate rejects a crown, because he 
is taught to say ‘‘Mithra is my crown.” It is said that his 
Latinity is provincial and Punic; but Niebuhr, according 
to Neander, points out that this alleged provincialism is 
.. due to his large vocabulary and employment of words and 
expressions taken from ancient Latin writers. He tells 
us he also wrote in Greek, but none of his works in that 





EARLY CHRISTIAN LEARNING 203 


language have survived. In a word, Tertullian is as un- 
compromising a Christian, and it may be added, as credu- 
lous, and yet as free from the reproach of lack of culture, 
as John Wesley himself. 


The Octavius of Minucius Felix 

Another Latin writer of exceptional culture is Minucius 
Felix, whose Octavius is sufficient proof that the Chris- 
tians were, at a very early date, able to appeal to the edu- 
cated classes. Not only, says Baehrens, his latest editor, 
is his learning to be admired, but also the art with which 
he arranged his materials. ‘Look,’ he continues, ‘at his 
perfect mastery in discussion, and in addition at his beau- 
tiful employment of the figures of rhetoric and the variety 
of them, then observe how delightfully he selects and 
composes sentences imitated from Cicero and the poets, 
ElLOra 

The last example of a Christian apologist who em- 
ployed the best Latinity of his age shall be Arnobius, 
the master of another church writer, Lactantius. Like 
many famous men, St. Augustine for example, he had 
been a teacher of rhetoric. He entered the Church late 
in life, and does not show any considerable knowledge 
of Scripture. Jerome, no mean judge, praises the clarity 
of his style, though he is occasionally careless, confused, 
and vague in doctrinal points. Of his learning the late 
Dr. Moule, Bishop of Durham, himself a finished classical 
scholar, remarks: ‘As a storehouse of old Latinity and 
of allusions to points of antiquity, to heathen mythology 
and ceremonial, to law, education, and amusements—his 
work is of the greatest interest and importance.” Ar- 
nobius wrote early in the fourth century, and is among 
the last of the pre-Nicene writers. 

Enough has been said to indicate that Christianity was 


204 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


fully able to hold its own in educated society; and this is 
remarkable, because many distinguished men of letters, 
even after the complete triumph of the Church, steadily 
ignored its very existence. 





CHAPTER XXI 
THE HISTORY OF EUSEBIUS OF CASSAREA 


Eusebtus moderate and impartial 

One of the most interesting characters in the history of 
early Christianity, not only on account of the debt which 
we owe to him as our indispensable authority, but for 
many other reasons, is Eusebius of Cesarea. He belonged 
to the second generation of the disciples of Origen; he 
witnessed the persecution of Diocletian, the peace of the 
Church, the great Council of Nicza, the triumphant estab- 
lishment of Christianity under Constantine. He was an 
unwearied student, and at the same time took an active 
part in the great events of the age. He combined the 
functions of a biblical scholar, apologist, antiquarian, his- 
torian, chronographer, and panegyrist, with the experience 
of an ecclesiastical adviser of the emperor. In temper he 
was conservative, cautious, and conciliatory. He passed 
through a great persecution without being either a martyr 
or an apostate, and through the Arian controversy as one 
who favoured neither extreme. If not cast in an heroic 
mould, he was a tireless worker, to whom the Church owes 
too much to ignore his claim to gratitude. 


Events of his life to 325 
The most important events in the life of Eusebius are 
subsequent to the Council of Nicza, a.p. 325; and for the 
present purpose it is enough to say that he was the pupil 
and enthusiastic admirer of the martyr Pamphilus, in 
memory of whom he called himself Eusebius (the son) of 
205 


206 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Pamphilus. In 296 he actually saw the Emperor Diocle- 
tian in Palestine, accompanied by the youthful Constan- 
tine. A few years later he was an eye-witness in Syria 
and Egypt of the terrible suffering of the martyrs, among 
them his beloved Pamphilus. Pamphilus was evidently 
a wealthy man and an enthusiastic collector of books, and 
of which Eusebius had the use, sharing as he did in his 
friend’s literary labours; and he had also the great Chris- 
tian library of Czesarea, with Origen’s Hexapla. 


Bishop of Cesarea in Palestine 

After the persecution was over Eusebius was elected 
bishop of Cesarea in Palestine, and it is greatly to his 
credit that, though pressed to take the patriarchal see of 
Antioch, he refused to leave his original bishopric. He 
was doubtless influenced by conscientious scruples which 


prevented him violating the ecclesiastical rule against re- 


moving from one bishopric to another; but it would have 
been no small sacrifice to leave the comparative leisure 
and library of Caesarea for the troublous throne of the 
Patriarch of Antioch. He continued his library labours 
till the day of his death circa 341. 


Purpose of Eusebius 

Like many historians, Eusebius had a purpose in view 
which manifests itself in all his works. He is pre- 
eminently an apologist; and his design is to show how 
God from the very first worked for the revelation of 
Himself in Christ. In his great work he attempts what 
no apologist had hitherto done, to show by a history of 
the Church how God accomplished His purpose, and thus 
_he describes himself as entering a hitherto untrodden 
wilderness. It is as an historian that Eusebius will here 
be regarded, and after a survey of the field of his labours 
it will be possible to make an estimate of their value. 


Oe Oo 


—_ se eee eee 


| 
. 
| 
. 
| 





THE HISTORY OF EUSEBIUS OF CHSAREA 207 


Eusebius’ historical work 

The four great contributions to history by Eusebius 
are: (1) his Chronicle, (2 and 3) his apologetic works, 
the Preparatio and Demonstratio, (4) his Ecclestastical 
History. His Life of Constantine is confessedly a pane- 
gyric, or composition in praise of the emperor. ‘The 
Chronicle was compiled before the History, and, whether 
the Preparatio and Demonstratio were earlier or later, 
they supplement it. The Chronicle is intended to demon- 
strate the falsity of the Gentile contention that Chris- 
tianity is a new religion. Eusebius, working on the basis 
of the Chronicle of Africanus, a Christian of the third 
century, shows the antiquity of the Jewish nation and 
records, and therefore of the Christian revelation, which 
he contends was in the world from the first. He makes 
Abraham the starting point of his Chronology, which is 
an indispensable guide to all knowledge of classical 
antiquity. 


The Preparatio and Demonstratio 

The Preparatio is addressed to heathen; and its object 
is to show that the Christians are justified in accepting the 
books of the Hebrews and in rejecting the heathen reli- 
gions. It is as full of quotations from ancient, and often 
lost pagan, writings, as the Church History is of extracts 
from early Christian literature. The Demonstratio 
continues the argument, and deals mainly with the fulfil- 
ment of Hebrew prophecy by Christ. Here Eusebius 
makes unsparing use of the versions of Scripture in the 
Hexapla. Much of the work is lost, the Preparatio being 
complete in twenty books; and the most interesting part 
of it is the argument for the Faith drawn from the charac- 
ter of the Saviour. Taken as a whole, the two books are 
among the greatest Christian apologies, though Eusebius 


208 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


does not show the acumen of Origen when he answers 
Celsus, or the eloquence of the great Latin apologists. 


History of the Church 

Having surveyed the past from the Gentile and Jewish 
standpoints, Eusebius commences his history of the Chris- 
tian Church from the birth of the Saviour to the final 
victory of Constantine over his last rival, Licinius. The 
object is to give (1) the succession of the apostles and the 
chronological data, (2) the order of events, (3) the dis- 
tinguished rulers of the Church, (4) the heretics, (5) the 
well-deserved punishment of the Jews, (6) the persecu- 
tions of the Church. 


Christianity in the world from the first. Book I 

The first chapters in which the history is introduced 
are designed to show that the religion revealed by Christ 
the Word, is neither new nor strange. After the fall of 
Adam men became utterly barbarous and brutal. Never- 
theless, the Word of God was among them revealing Him- 
self, sometimes in human form. The world was never 
entirely destitute of the truth, and was being prepared 
for the manifestation thereof in Jesus Christ. All right- 
eous men from the beginning were Christians in truth, if 
not in name; but this was not “natural” but revealed reli- 
gion, and it was preserved among a nation widely dis- 
persed and indestructible, till in the Christians arose a 
true Israel. 

The rest of the first book deals with the birth of our 
Saviour and with the history of the time, Eusebius making 
use of Josephus and also of Africanus. He discusses the 


_ two genealogies of the Christ in Matthew and Luke; the 


testimony of Josephus as to the death of the Baptist, and 
gives as well the doubtful passage about Jesus. The 
book concludes with the correspondence between Our 





THE HISTORY OF EUSEBIUS OF CHSAREA 209 


Lord and Abgar of Edessa, which Eusebius says he trans- 
lated from the Syriac. 


Book II 

In the second book, the Acts of the Apostles and 
Josephus are the main authorities as far as they go; and 
the whole concludes with the martyrdoms of Peter and 
Paul at Rome. Eusebius supplements the narrative by 
various additions: Tertullian’s account of Tiberius pro- 
posing to the Senate to recognise Christ as God, Pilate’s 
suicide, Hegesippus’ story of the death of James, the 
Lord’s brother, Mark’s preaching in Alexandria, and his 
being succeeded in the bishopric by Annianus. 


Method of Eusebius 

Here we have.a clue to the method of Eusebius, as well 
as an indication of his value as an historian. He quotes 
authors, with whom we are familiar, as his authorities, 
others of whom we should have known nothing but for 
him; and in addition he makes statements, unsupported 
by authority, probably based on the accepted tradition of 
the Church. Had he known who related Pilate’s death, or 
Mark’s preaching in Alexandria, and especially who had 
told of Paul being beheaded and Peter crucified at Rome, 
he would certainly have informed his readers. On the 
other hand, he has a twofold account of the death of 
James, the Just, by Hegesippus and Josephus, both 
of whom he quotes. It is interesting to notice, in his 
chapter in Book I on the Seventy whom the Lord ap- 
pointed in addition to the Twelve, that he distinguishes 
Cephas whom Paul opposed at Antioch from Peter the 
Apostle, on the authority of Clement, and makes 
Thaddeus, who was sent to Abgar, a member of the 
larger body and not of the Twelve. 


210 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Book Ill 

In the third book, Eusebius begins by saying where 
the apostles preached, quoting from a lost commentary of 
Origen. Here his honesty is as apparent as his critical 
judgment, for, as has been already shown, there was no 
lack of tradition concerning the labours of the Twelve in 
his time. He then discusses the genuineness of the letters 
attributed to the apostles, rejecting II Peter, as well as 
his so called Acts and Apocalypse. This book is of special 
value, because Eusebius dwells on the Canon of Scripture, 
referring again and again to the subject; and in the 25th 
Chapter he gives the books accepted by Christians as 
undoubted, as of questionable genuineness, and those 
which must be rejected as spurious. The book contains 
many other things of interest. Josephus’s account of the 
siege of Jerusalem, the stories related by Clement of the 
old age of the Apostle John, Pliny’s correspondence with 
Trajan, Ignatius, and his letters on his way to martyr- 
dom, and the writings of Papias. This can hardly be 
called history, as there is nothing approaching a continu- 
Ous narrative, nor was such possible for Eusebius to con- 
struct out of his materials. What he has preserved is 
invaluable to the knowledge of the first days. 


Book IV 

The fourth book opens with lists of the bishops of 
Rome, Alexandria, and Jerusalem. The care Eusebius 
takes in preserving the order of the episcopal successions 
is remarkable, and his being bishop of Cesarea in 
Palestine gave him special opportunity for knowing about 
Jerusalem. He says the church there, down to Hadrian’s 
time, was entirely Jewish, and the chronology of the 
‘bishops was nowhere to be found. However, he learned 
from documents that there were fourteen bishops from 
James, the Lord’s brother, to the second destruction of 


THE HISTORY OF EUSEBIUS OF CZSAREA 211 


Jerusalem by Hadrian, and he gives their names. He 
then, in a very brief chapter, relates the war of Bar- 
cochba, on the authority of an otherwise unknown author, 
Aristo of Pella. His testimony that all the Christians of 
Jerusalem were Hebrews is important, because it indi- 
cates that, after its destruction by Titus, Jerusalem 
appears to have become an entirely Jewish city to which 
other people were not attracted. Of the war in the time 
of Hadrian scarcely anything was known, even to a great 
scholar who lived in the country. This book is of much 
value for the use made of Hegesippus, Dionysius of 
Corinth, and Justin Martyr, whose works are enumerated. 
A letter of Antoninus (probably a forgery) to the Com- 
mon Assembly of Asia, and a rescript of Hadrian regard- 
ing the Christians, are also preserved. But, though it is 
in other MSS., the most valuable part of the book is the 
letter of the church of Smyrna, giving an account of the 
martyrdom of Polycarp. Eusebius assigns this to the 
reign of Marcus Aurelius, whereas it really belongs to 
that of his predecessor Antoninus Pius, an example of the 
historian’s inaccuracy, remarkable in one who had made a 
study of chronology. Chapters are devoted to Melito of 
Sardis, who gives the canonical books of the Old Testa- 
ment, and to many other ecclesiastical writers. And here 
it is possible that Eusebius’ interest in the Canon of 
Scripture is, in part, to be accounted for by the fact that 
he lived through the Diocletian persecution, when the 
sacred books were ordered to be surrendered, and it was 
extremely important to know what book should be 
handed over to the magistrates without incurring the 
guilt of being a traditor. 


Book V 
The fifth book is of great value, for it contains copious 
extracts from the letter of the churches of Vienne and 


212 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Lyons. Many of Eusebius’ extracts are disappointingly 
brief; but this, and the martyrdom of Polycarp, are satis- 
factorily complete. Among the quotations from Irenzus 
there are interesting, though incomplete ones, about the 
continuance of miraculous powers in the Church. This 
illustrates the historian’s remarkable sanity in keeping 
the marvellous, not entirely, but to a great extent out of 
his narrative. To show how far he does this, critics have 
fixed on a miracle, related by him, as an example of his 
credulity, which may well have happened. When there 
had been a peculiarly brutal massacre of Christians in a 
Syrian town, the pillars of the houses are said to have been 
suffused with moisture on a fine day, as if they wept for 
the sufferers. Even though the miracle may be denied, 
the phenomenon may well have taken place. But for this 
book we should have known but little of Asiatic Mon- 
tanism, the testimonies being here mostly first-hand. The 
Paschal question is also dealt with, the action of Victor, 
and Ireneus’ letter to him. Throughout the book 
Irenzus is most prominent; and as his works are only 
extant in Latin we owe the Greek version of parts entirely 
to Eusebius. 


Books VI and VII | 

In the sixth and seventh books the most conspicuous 
authorities are Origen and Dionysius of Alexandria, who 
are the two scholars specially revered by Eusebius. As 
he approaches his own time, the historian becomes rather 
less than more interesting. But we are deeply indebted 
to him for his extracts from the works of Dionysius, and 
“especially for the account of his controversy with Nepos 
and the Millenarians on the authorship of the Apocalypse 
of John. 


THE HISTORY OF EUSEBIUS OF CHSAREA 213 


Book VIII. Gibbon’s accusation of Eusebius as partial 

In the second chapter of the eighth book there is a 
passage in which Eusebius says that he was unwilling to 
write of the things which discredited the Church in the 
persecution of Diocletian, but would only relate events 
which might be for the benefit of posterity. This has 
provoked Gibbon severely to attack him as guilty of wilful 
suppression of facts in order to misrepresent the history 
of the Church. No accusation could be more unjust or 
ungenerous. One has only to read the first chapter to see 
how Eusebius bewails the backslidings of his age with all 
the fervour of an ancient prophet. In this book there is 
an account of the Diocletian persecution, which happened 
in Eusebius’ own time, down to Galerius’s edict in 311 
commanding the Christians to be tolerated and even im- 
ploring their prayers. . 


Martyrs of Palestine. Books [IX and X 

Then follows the so-called Martyrs of Palestine. The 
ninth and tenth books take us from Galerius’s edict to 
the final victory of Constantine over Licinius in 323, when 
Constantine became sole emperor. The History of the 
Church cannot have been completed long after this date. 


Estimate of work 

Such then is the scope of the first Church history, and 
it is noteworthy that no historian presumed to cover the 
ground independently. After the Arian controversy had 
begun, several historians tried their hands on the same 
period, but the story as told by Eusebius was accepted as 
final. This is all the more remarkable, as he was con- 
sidered by many as heretical in his views about the 
Trinity. It can hardly be considered a great history. 
It is not consecutive, it lacks literary charm, there are but 
rarely arresting remarks in the course of it. In places the 


214 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


language is turgid and obscure. But as to its value there 
can be no doubt. We should know practically nothing of 
the early Church without it. Some of the selections from 
Other writings are admirably chosen; and the author’s 
enthusiasm for the heroic deeds of the Church is evident. 
He is well informed where the authorities were accessible 
to him. Of the western Church he knows but little. 

Eusebius is truly the father of Church history. He 
made future generations interested in it. Jerome and 
Rufinus in the West, Socrates, Sozomen, and_Theodoret 
in the East, followed in his steps. From St. Luke to 
Eusebius no one appears to have cared to tell the story 
of the Church; after the appearance of the Ecclesiastical 
History, many undertook the work of continuing it. But 
as he claims, Eusebius started upon his task without any 
example to guide him in his undertaking: and every 
Church historian must acknowledge that the pioneer is 
the learned bishop of Cesarea. 


CHAPTER XXII 
CONSTANTINE 


Decay of the empire in the third century 

For nearly a century the Roman empire had been on 
the down-grade. The frontiers were unable to be held 
against the increasing pressure of barbarian invasion. 
The population was steadily decreasing. The government 
was on the point of dissolution. It was the age of what 
have been called the “barrack emperors.” The soldiers 
saluted some leader as Augustus, only to murder him 
after a few years, or, perhaps, a few months. There were 
almost aS many usurpers as there were provinces. At one 
time there were so many that they were called the Thirty 
Tyrants. From the death of Commodus in 192, to the 
accession of Diocletian in 284, there were twenty-seven 
legitimate Augusti. Septimius Severus reigned for seven- 
teen years, leaving seventy-five years for twenty-six em- 
perors. Several popes during this period were martyred, 
nevertheless there were but thirteen of them. The armies 
were as unsuccessful as they were mutinous: one emperor 
sustained a crushing defeat at the hands of the Goths: 
another, with his army was destroyed by the Persians. 
Plagues, earthquakes, famines, marked the course of the 
century. The barbarians got into Greece and destroyed 
Delphi. 


Revival 
At last Rome rallied under three soldier emperors, 
Claudius, Aurelian and Probus (269-282), and her ene- 
mies were taught to respect her arms. Then a ruler arose 
215 


216 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


in Diocletian who held the empire for twenty years, 
when he abdicated, having proved himself an organiser 
who could bring some order out of chaos. His true suc- 
cessor was Constantine, who accomplished his design of 
transferring the real centre of. government to the East 
where the Roman empire continued to exist till finally 
overthrown by the Turks in 1453. The same Constantine, 
in a very different way from that adopted by Diocletian, 
gave the Roman world the unity in religion his prede- 
cessor had desired. 


Diocletian 

Diocletian’s policy was to put an end to the emperor’s 
holding his power at the caprice of the military, and to 
make his people respect the government as a heaven- 
sanctioned institution. Hitherto, in theory, the emperor 
had been the first citizen of the Republic; henceforth he 
was to be regarded as an unapproachable despot, hedged 
in by the protection of an elaborate court etiquette, and 
treated as a superhuman person. Diocletian took the 
divine name of Jovius, which we may render “Vicar of 
Jupiter.” This paved the way for almost a new language 
in imperial government. The different departments be- 
came “sacred.” The “sacred palace,” the ‘‘sacred col- 
lege,” the ‘sacred largess,” all things pertaining to the 


emperor being thus designated. The adjective has been 


transferred to the administration of the church of Rome. 

Diocletian also realised that the interests of the Empire 
required the fact to be realised that ‘“East was East” and 
“West was West” and though the Roman world was 
always one in theory, the administration was placed in the 
hands of two ‘“‘Augusti,’”’ Diocletian taking the East, and 
‘giving the West to a colleague, Maximian, who was called 
Herculius, “Vicar of Hercules.” These two emperors each 
adopted a son with the title of Cesar; and after they had 





CONSTANTINE 217 


reigned for twenty years, the two Cesars were to succeed 
as Augusti. 

Further, it had become clear that Rome was no longer 
the real seat of the Empire. Those who ruled must live 
nearer the frontier where the danger spots were. So 
Diocletian made his capital at Nicomedia in Bithynia, and 
Maximian at Milan in northern Italy. Thus was prepared 
Constantine’s great exploit of founding a New Rome in 
the city which bears his name. The two Cesars, and suc- 
cessors of the Augusti, were Galerius, a rough uncultured 
man, but a great general, who was associated with 
Diocletian, and Constantius Chlorus, the father of 
Constantine the Great, who was the colleague of 
Maximian. This arrangement gave the Empire an or- 
derly government and time to revive after the disasters 
of the previous century. 

To understand the reign of Constantine, which covers 
no less than thirty-one years, it is absolutely necessary to 
realise that it was a continuation of the policy of Dio- 
cletian. Whatever judgment we may form of that great 
emperor’s arrangements, they had the merit of perma- 
nence, and were the cause of the surprising vitality of the 
eastern Roman empire, which held its own and became 
the bulwark of Europe as against Asia, thereby giving it 
time to organise the civilisation of the Middle Ages. 


Diocletian persecution 

At the very end of Diocletian’s reign he consented to 
the persecution which bears his name. Now that the 
imperial authority had been restored, and with it peace 
and order, it was decided to give it a religious unity, and 
with this object in view to destroy the Christian Church, 
the one internal power which was as well organised as the 
Empire itself. It was already an imperium in imperio, 
and this could not be tolerated. 


218 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Diocletian had, up to the last years of his reign, not 
only tolerated, but encouraged the Christians, many of 
whom filled offices of trust under him. Both his wife and 
daughters were Christians. The emperor had spent vast 
sums in making Nicomedia worthy of being his capital; 
and in close proximity to his palace a Christian Church 
had been allowed to be built. But Diocletian was about 
to abdicate, and his successor Galerius, under the influ- 
ence it is said of his mother, was bitterly anti-Christian. 
Diocletian therefore agreed to allow the suppression of 
the Church without bloodshed. The Neo-Platonist phi- 
losophers had also a hand in the matter. Porphyry 
and Hierocles had commenced a literary attack on the 
Church; and their party doubtless supposed that if severe 
measures were taken it could be destroyed, and all united 
under a syncretistic religion which acknowledged the 
majesty of Rome. The army also was suspected, not 
without some reason, of being infected with a Christianity 
which connoted disloyalty. Refusals to honour the 
standards, and to accept donatives in the usual manner, 
had been accompanied by apparently mutinous symptoms. 
At any rate, in the opinion of the imperial advisers the 
restored Roman empire could never remain at unity if a 
religion alien to its whole spirit was permitted to flourish 
in its midst. Accordingly, it was resolved to extirpate 
the Church. The buildings were to be destroyed, the 
books burned, and all who practised the religion severely 
punished. It was a battle for life between the Church and 
the Empire; until at last a truce was made in which Con- 
stantine took the leading part. 


Persecution severe, but legal 

The persecution lasted for eight years, and was the 
severest and most protracted the Church had ever known. 
The Christians endured much; in some places like Syria, 


CONSTANTINE 219 


Egypt, and the provinces of Africa, their sufferings were 
terrible, and many were put to death; but it was always 
under forms of law, and it is creditable to the Roman 
government that there were no wholesale massacres either 
by the soldiery or the mob. At last, the emperors saw that 
it was hopeless to try to exterminate Christianity by law. 
Galerius, who had instituted the persecution, is called by 
the author of the book on the Deaths of the Persecutors 
the Evil Beast; but he had the sense to submit to the inevi- 
table. He was dying in 311; and just before his end he 
issued an edict, in his own name and that of his colleagues, 
somewhat awkwardly attempting to justify his former 
conduct, giving the Christians liberty to worship in their 
own way, and asking for their prayers. 


Constantine emperor 

In the meantime, Constantine was rising in both for- 
tune and reputation. If we are to believe the author of 
the Deaths, Galerius had done all he could to prevent his 
being associated with the Empire, and Constantine pru- 
dently escaped from the palace of the tyrant and joined 
his father Constantine in Britain. He arrived in time to 
witness his death, and was immediately proclaimed 
Augustus by the army of Britain at York, May 1, 306. 
Galerius, the senior emperor, recognised Constantine as a 
colleague, and sent him the insignia of his rank. For the 
first years of his reign Constantine had work enough re- 
pelling the Germans. Then began a series of wars against 
his colleagues in the West, which ended by making him 
master of half of the Roman world. 


Maxentius 

His chief opponent was Maxentius, the son of Diocle- 
tian’s colleague Maximian, who occupied Rome and ruled 
over Italy and Africa. Constantine’s worst enemies have 
nothing but evil to say of Maxentius; and he seems to 


220 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


have been a licentious tyrant. It was the war with 
Maxentius which made Constantine the champion of the 
Christians. He and his father were more educated than 
the rest of the Diocletian emperors; and Constantius is 
credited with having been very lenient in enforcing the 
law against the Christians, and we do not hear of any 
horrible cruelties in his dominions. Constantine was 
probably always inclined to a monotheistic worship, and 
was in partial sympathy with the Christians on that 
account. At any rate, one may be fairly sure that he 
knew something about Christianity, had conceived a cer- 
tain admiration for it, and realised in it a powerful ally. 
Warned by a vision or a dream, just before he encoun- 
tered Maxentius outside Rome, he adopted the Cross as 
his standard, invoked Jesus as his God, and utterly de- 
feated his opponent, whose head was borne in triumph 
into the city. 


Constantine and the Church | 

From this time Constantine began to show constantly 
increasing indulgence to the Christian Church. It was 
necessary for him to be extremely cautious, for the ene- 
mies of the Faith were powerful and bitter. They had 
rallied in the West under Maxentius, and in the East 
under Maximin Daza, the rival of Galerius’ appointee, 
Licinius, who at this time was on the side of Constantine. 
When both the rivals were overthrown Licinius joined 
Constantine at Milan, whence, in 313, they jointly issued 
the famous edict. Constantine had himself more coldly 
granted toleration to the Christians in the previous year; 
but now they and every one in the Empire was given 
leave to worship God as they pleased. 


“Church regarded by Constantine as a unit 
But such toleration had never been consistent with the 
policy of the Empire, especially in an age when the gov- 


CONSTANTINE 221 


ernment was interfering with every department of life, 
and regulating all men’s actions. It will soon be apparent 
that Constantine, in recognising Christians, resolved to 
regard them as a single body, with which he could deal 
corporately, and that the ultimate result of his polity was 
for the catholic Church to become a department of the 
state with the emperor as its Pontifex Maximus, in fact 
if not in name. 


Ecclesiastical policy 

That Constantine was able to foresee this is incredible. 
Indeed, it is certain that he was not converted by his 
vision; and even when in old age he told it to Eusebius he 
was still unbaptised, as were all his sons. Throughout his 
life he was the patron, but not a member, of the Church. 
He and his successors, till the time of Gratian, were 
Pontifices Maximi, as all earlier emperors had been. 
Constantine’s policy ecclesiastically was very like that 
of Augustus politically. Both realised that the old order 
was a thing of the past, and that many preferred that it 
should not be so considered. Augustus left the machinery 
of the ancient Republic apparently intact, and allowed it 
to fall naturally to pieces. Constantine did exactly the 
same with the old religion. A few temples, it is true, were 
closed; a few scandals put an end to; but the priests en- 
joyed their ancient revenues, and represented the state 
religion. 


Donatist dispute reveals Constantine’s attitude to the 
Church 

As to the Christian Church, the emperor did all in his 
power to increase its popularity, and allowed its rulers 
complete freedom in self-government; the sole condition, 
to which they were only too ready to agree, was that there 
should be but one Church with which he could have 
dealings. 


222 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


The policy seems especially clear in the Donatist dis- 
pute. Here we have Constantine at his best. The discon- 
tented party had appealed to him against Cecilian, bishop 
of Carthage. He refused to intervene, and referred the 
matter to Pope Miltiades. ‘The pope pronounced for 
Cecilian. The Donatists appealed again. The emperor 
now placed the matter in the hands of the Church. He 
assembled, as far as possible, all the bishops in his do- 
minions to meet at Arles, giving them every facility to get 
there. Their verdict was again in favour of Cecilian. 
Constantine now confirmed the decree of the council, and 
the Donatists, as the African schismatics now began to be 
called, were no longer recognised by the government. 
Persecution, if enforcement of the imperial edict can be so 
called, was tried and failed. For the rest of Constantine’s 
reign they were left alone. 

But it is not the details of the disputes that are impor- 
tant, it is the principle involved. Constantine would 
encourage and support the Christians only as a corporate 
body, the Catholic Church. He left the bishops, z.e., the 
representatives of the different churches, to decide what 
the Catholic Church consisted of, and then he virtually 
pronounced it the only legal body of Christians. 


Constantine and Pope Sylvester 

In all history there is no more absurd story than that 
of the “Donation” of Constantine to Pope Sylvester. It 
would be hard to find an educated man who now believes 
that Constantine accepted baptism at the hands of the 
pope, and then having presented him with authority over 
all the West, retired from Rome and built a new Rome 
called Constantinople after its founder. Yet late and 
' ridiculous as is the story it contains one element of truth. 
This emperor did try to hand over to the Christians the 
control of their Church and the pope was the greatest 


CONSTANTINE 223 


bishop in the world. He wished the Church to govern 
itself and assist him in restoring the morale of the Empire. 
But the Church must be a corporation which the Roman 
law could recognise, in other words, the Catholic Church. 


Defeats of Licinius 

Constantine’s victory over Maxentius made him the 
greatest figure in the Roman world. His colleague 
Licinius was quite a secondary figure. In the first war 
Constantine won a victory at Cibalis (316), and added 
Illyricum to his dominions; but Licinius, still undefeated 
and master of the eastern provinces, now sought the sup- 
port of the pagans against his powerful colleague. It was 
feared that there would be a new persecution; but Con- 
Stantine, now more than ever the Christian champion, 
encountered Licinius at Byzantium,.the seat of the future 
capital of eastern Rome. Crispus, the son of Constantine, 
gained a great victory over the fleet of Licinius, who was 
taken prisoner. This was the Actium of Constantine. He 
became by it master of the entire Roman world. This was 
in 323, five years after the outbreak of the quarrel be- 
tween Alexander the bishop, and Arius the presbyter of 
Alexandria. Again Constantine pursued the identical 
policy he had adopted towards the Donatists. He wrote 
a very sensible letter to the Alexandrian church, urging 
them to peace, and then summoned not the western bish- 
ops but the entire Church to decide what the Faith or 
Symbol of unity actually was. 


Character of Constantine 

Constantine has often been accused of being a hypo- 
crite. This was the opinion of some of his own time, as 
well as in modern days. It is scarcely a just estimate of 
his character. He seems to have been sincerely religious 
in his way, but in his position he had to be a profound 


224 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


politician and to play a very difficult game. That he com- 
mitted many acts which all moralists must condemn is 
certain; he could be ruthless to his enemies, and in his 
family life he resembles Herod the Great with his readi- 
ness to sacrifice his relatives to his security. But his long 
reign, which staved off the ruin of the empire; his genius 
in selecting Byzantium as the site of the future capital; 
and his foresight in selecting the Church as the best 
bulwark of civilisation, entitle him to be called Great as 


- few who have borne that appellation have deserved. He © 


_ was not great in character or genius. He seems to have 
been good-natured when not thwarted, accessible, courte- 
ous, not without humour. He desired a moral reform, 
and was a preacher by inclination. His very laws bear 
traces of his homiletical proclivities. He must have loved 


the sound of his own voice, and his greatest happiness may — 
have been when he addressed an audience of bishops. He — 


could even listen with pleasure to others, especially when 


they spoke in his praise. But his real title to fame is that — 


he understood that the permanence of his empire de- 


pended on the Church which his predecessors had en- 


deavoured to destroy. That the union of Church and 
Empire had some disastrous results cannot be denied; 
but, humanly speaking, that either could have continued 
without the other is unthinkable. 


Pi 
“ 
2 
R 
t 





CHAPTER XXIII 
THE ROMAN CATACOMBS 


Discovery of the Catacombs 

On May 31, 1578, it was discovered that outside Rome 
were immense cemeteries, literally mined with tiers upon 
tiers of galleries and passages, cut out at great expense, 
with receptacles for the bodies of dead Christians. For 
many centuries people had been passing to and fro on 
their journeys without the slightest suspicion that beneath 
their feet lay a revelation of a Christian world, dating 
back to the first century of our era. Here were proofs of 
how they worshipped, how they had lived, what their reli- 
gious ideas were. Of their genuineness there could be no 
doubt; for their very existence had been forgotten, and 
they had even ceased to be used for a thousand years. 
At first it was supposed that the poor persecuted Chris- 
tians had used the disused sandpits, made by the builders, 
or even the miserable burying places of the poor. But 
such a humble origin has been completely disproved. The 
Catacombs are not in sandpits but in the rock; the burial 
places are the result of elaborate and expensive mining; 
their decorations show that the owners could command the 
best artistic taste of the time. Another feature of the 
Catacombs is their extent. They cannot now be accu- 
rately measured; but the most moderate computation is 
‘that there must have been 350 miles of galleries; and some 
have supposed that six million corpses are interred in 

225 


226 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


them. As there is evidence that a good price was paid 
for each loculus, or receptacle for a coffin, the Christians 
must have been a very wealthy and numerous community 
in Rome. 

But in addition there are deposited in the Catacombs 
numerous objects of domestic as well as religious use; in- 
scriptions are naturally numerous, nor was there any sign 
of Christian abhorrence of pictorial representation of 
sacred subjects. We are even surprised that some of the 
ornamentation of the Catacombs is startlingly pagan in 
character, as though the artists at least could not depart 
from the conventional types which they had been trained 
to depict. 


Roman funeral rites 

The story of the Catacombs must be prefaced by a 
short description of Roman funerary customs, many of 
which have survived to the present day. When a Roman 
was at the point of death his nearest relative tried to catch 
his last breath in his mouth. He then drew the ring off 
the dead man’s finger, and called him by name. The 
Libitinarii, or undertakers, were then summoned and the 
death was registered at the temple of Venus Libitina. A 
coin, as a fee to Charon, was put in the mouth of the de- 
ceased, and he was laid out in the vestibule of the house 
clad in his best robe, with his feet to the door. If he had 
gained a crown, it was placed on his head. The funeral 
procession took place on the eighth day, and was a very 
solemn affair. In the old days it was at night, later only 
the poor were buried after dark. A feast was given at the 
time, or after the funeral on the Novendiale. It was 
customary for the relatives to visit the tombs, and there 


*This seems incredible, and the estimates are of course conjectural. 
Marchi, the first modern investigator of the Catacombs, suggested the 
galleries must have totalled 800 or 900 miles. 350 is the lowest estimate. 
Smith and Cheetham, Dic. Chr. Antiq., vol. I, p. 301 b. 


THE ROMAN CATACOMBS 227 


to offer sacrifices and gifts, called inferie and parentalia. 
The place where anyone, even a slave, was buried, was 
religiosus, that is to say consecrated to the gods, and to 
violate it was a Serious crime, even punishable by death. 
The tombs of great families were called columbaria, be- 
cause they had the appearance of dovecotes, with their 
niches for the reception of coffins or urns. It should be 
remembered that in Rome burning the dead was a com- 
paratively modern custom, and only became popular in 
the later days of the Republic. 


Christians able to buy cemeteries 

This explains why it was possible for the Christians, 
though their religion was illegal, to purchase and construct 
at great expense their burial grounds, and also throws a 
light on many things to be found there. On becoming a 
Christian a man did not cease to be a Roman, and, as 
such, one wedded to custom in an unusual degree. As a 
matter of fact the Roman church, using the words in a 
local sense, is one of the most conservative institutions on 
earth, and still retains not only the habits of the most 
primitive Christianity, but those of an antiquity going 
back to the very foundation of the city. On one point the 
law was adamant, namely that no burials might be per- 
mitted within the city walls, and the Catacombs in con- 
sequence are all extra mural. 


History of the Catacombs 

It is at least possible that the earliest Christian Cata- 
comb, that of 5S. Priscilla on the Via Salaria Nova, be- 
longs to the first century. It was originally, however, not 
church property but the burial place of the Acilian gens. 
There were Jewish Catacombs, three have been discov- 
ered, which may be even earlier. Down to the peace of 
the Church, a.p. 313, the Catacombs were the usual places 


228 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


for Christian burial. Their importance is shown by the 
fact that early in the third century Pope Zephyrinus 
placed his trusted adviser and successor over the ceme- 
tery which still bears his name as the Catacomb of St. 
Callistus. This form of interment, however, gradually 
ceased, no date later than a.p. 410 having been discovered, 
and in the time of Jerome’s youth the Catacombs had be- 
come the resort of those who went to pray at the tombs 
of the martyrs. Pope Damasus (366-384) devoted his 
energies to the pious work of restoring them, employing 
for the purpose the services of an artist named Filocalus. 
Then came the calamities of Rome, the captures by Alaric 
and Gaiseric in the fifth century, and the repeated sieges 
during the Gothic Wars of the sixth. In the seventh cen- 
tury, when the popes were in constant fear of the Lom- 
bards, they began to transport the bodies of the martyrs 
within the city, and this continued till the ninth, when 
Paschal I (817-824) is said to have deposited the remains 
of 2300 martyrs in the Church of St. Praxedis. From 
that time the Catacombs ceased to be of interest to any- 
body. Their entrances were walled up or forgotten, and 
nothing was known of them till some workmen in 1578 
discovered Christian crypts in a vineyard on the Via 
Salaria. Even then the discovery aroused little anti- 
quarian interest, and the Catacombs were ruthlessly plun- 
dered by relic hunters and thieves. The real discoverer 
of their value was Antonio Bosio whose book Roma 
Sotteranea was published in 1632, three years after his 
death. His work was not really continued till the nine- 
teenth century, when Padre Marchi began labours which 
were continued by de Rossi and others. 


-- Making of a Catacomb 
When a Catacomb was made, the first thing was to pur- 
chase an area or plot of ground with so much frontage 





THE ROMAN CATACOMBS 229 


and of a certain depth. This required registration 
and various other legal formalities, so that it would be 
impossible to make the purchase in secret. Then a pass- 
age all around the area was excavated with staircases 
leading down to it. On the side of the gallery, loculi for 
the reception of coffins were cut; and larger chambers 
were made at the side for family vaults and the reception 
of distinguished men or martyrs. Then more galleries 
were made, till the whole floor became a network of 
passages. Then another floor (piano) was constructed, 
being approached by stairs from above. In the cemetery 
of Callistus there are as many as seven piani. Some think 
the lowest were the first to be made. 


The cubicula 

The chambers in the Catacombs were called cubicula 
(a word peculiarly Christian). These generally contained 
a table tomb, possibly for the celebration of the Eucharist. 
They were lighted, sometimes by air shafts, at others by 
lamps suspended from the ceiling. Many are highly 
decorated; and here we have a remarkable example of 
the transition from paganism to Christianity in art and 
symbolism, as well as the acceptance of decoration in a 
religious sense by the Church. This is one of the im- 
portant lessons of the Catacombs. 


Art in the Catacombs 

The earliest Christians shared the Jews’ objection to 
representing the truths of religion to the eye. Both felt 
that to do so partook of the nature of idolatry, against 
which both religions were a standing protest. Tertullian 
and his school were strongly opposed to all compromises 
with heathenism, and required painters or artists, who 
might be engaged in making or decorating idols, to 
abandon their profession on joining the Church. He 


230 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


combats the idea that the prohibition to make an image 
was only partial because Moses by an exceptional divine 
command had set up the brazen serpent. This alone 
justified the departure from a rule which otherwise is of 
universal application. In his treatise Against Hermogenes, 
an artist by profession, who taught that matter had ex- 
isted before creation, Tertullian, as is usual with him, 
makes Hermogenes’ profession throw discredit on his 
false teaching; but the words pingit sollicite are some- 
what ambiguous in their meaning. At first, however, if 
the tombs were to be beautiful in any way, they had to be 
in accordance with the conventional art of the age, and all 
that a Christian could do was to avoid offensive and glar- 
ing representations of heathen mythology. As has been 
well said, ‘“‘At first they used many of the same decora- 
tions for mural devices as the pagans had used, always 
excepting anything that was immoral or idolatrous; intro- 
ducing, however, here and there as the ideas occurred to 
them, something more significant of their own creed, until 
by and by the whole was exclusively Christian.” 


Decorations 

It must be remembered that the very early Catacombs 
belonged to wealthy people, even akin to the imperial 
house, who could employ expensive artists, and, but only 
in a measure, direct their operations. One of the oldest 
specimens is in the cemetery of Domitilla. Here we have 
an elaborate vine on the ceiling, with little nude winged 
figures of children among the branches. In another early 
Catacomb, that of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, there are the 
four seasons with draped figures of girls with butterfly 
wings. The characteristic of all these decorations is their 
‘cheerfulness. Heathen they may be, but there is none of 
the gloomy view of death which prevailed in the Roman 
world. As a rule the art of the Catacombs, as has been 


THE ROMAN CATACOMBS 231 


remarked of the literature of early Christianity, is fully 
on a par with that of the period; and when the efforts of 
the Christians are pronounced to be crude or feeble they 
are sharing in the artistic or literary decadence of their 
contemporaries. Some of the early designs are very beau- 
tiful. An example from the Catacomb of Pretextatus will 
suffice. It is declared to be very early. It is so called 
arcosolium, an arch over the tomb. There are four bands 
of foliage on the arch, with birds visiting their young. On 
the highest band are boys, symbolical of the Christian 
triumph. Beneath the foliage are a band of reapers. In 
the recess is a figure of Christ, bearing a lost sheep. 


Christian symbolism 

Here we have the gradual appearance of a Christian 
symbolism, or possibly of pagan art utilised to bring forth 
a Christian idea, for the figure is. not a portrait of the 
Lord, but rather of Hermes carrying the ram. Orpheus 
also appears as a type of Christ, surrounded by biblical 
subjects. Moses smiting the rock, Daniel, David, 
Lazarus, and four pastoral scenes. The other favourite 
Christian symbolical representations are Noah, Jonah, the 
Sacrifice of Isaac, the Miracle of the Loaves, Adam and 
Eve, etc. It is noteworthy that the subjects chosen are 
mostly joyous. There are very few crosses, and these are 
triumphal, not penal ones. Sometimes they take the form 
of the letter T. Crucifixes, or figures of Christ on the 
Cross, are much later and do not go back beyond the 
fifth century. It is also strange that the Eucharist and 
the Last Supper are not to be found depicted. The fa- 
vourite symbol of Christ is the fish, and in all representa- 
tion of Christian funeral meals or agape this is prominent. 
After the Resurrection there are two accounts of the dis- 
ciples partaking of fish with the Lord. In the Third 
Gospel the Risen Jesus asks the apostles if they have any 


232 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


food with them. They give Him a portion of roast or 
boiled fish—this was at Jerusalem—and He took and ate 
of it before them. In the 21st chapter of John, after 
the miraculous draught of one hundred and fifty-three 
fishes, Christ prepares the meal. The disciples see a fire 
of coals prepared and on it roast fish (opsarion) and 
bread. The Lord takes the bread and likewise the fish 
and distributes it among them. Dried fish (tarichos) 
was the common food of the poor; fishes and bread were 
the scanty supplies taken by the multitude who went to 
hear Jesus in the wilderness when he fed them. Fish 
Seems never to have been used as an offering to Greek or 
Roman gods. Salvation by the water of baptism seems 
to have been a reason for the popularity of the fish sym- 
bol. Tertullian speaks of baptised persons as wee “little 
fishes.” In addition, the letters of the word IXOY= make 
the Greek of Jesus, Christ, Son of God, Saviour. These 
all help to account for the great popularity of the symbol 
of the fish, which appears in so many forms on lamps, 
amphore, etc., in the Catacombs and elsewhere. 


Funeral feasts 
The cubicula were undoubtedly used for meals, either 
agape or funeral celebrations, in memory of the deceased. 


It will be remembered that the Christians of Bithynia — 


gave up their common meal in obedience to Hadrian’s 
edict against clubs. This edict did not affect the relatives 
of those buried in the Catacombs, who were quite at 
liberty to meet on their own property and to do what all 
their heathen friends did in honour of their deceased. 
Consequently these funeral feasts are depicted without 
scruple. There is a famous one in the Catacomb of SS. 
..Marcellinus and Peter. The guests are seated, with a 
slave stationed to execute their orders; Jvene da calda 
and Agape misce mi are written over two of the figures. 





THE ROMAN CATACOMBS 233 


According to Augustine, in the fifth century these funerary 
feasts were scenes of at times untimely revelry, as the 
Lord’s Supper had been in St. Paul’s days at Corinth. 
The death, or rather “the birthday,” of the martyrs was 
scrupulously observed by memorial feasts. 


Eucharistic celebration 

In some of the Joculi glass vessels containing liquid 
have been found, and it was at one time supposed that 
this was the blood of the martyr, a view which had official 
sanction. But it is more likely that this was the conse- 
crated Wine of the Eucharist. It is not quite established 
whether the altars in the Catacombs are primitive, nor 
can one be certain that Mass in the earliest days was said 
over the tombs of martyrs. But after the Peace of the 
Church the practice began to be general. 


Baptism in the Catacombs 

Baptism was performed in the Catacombs, as the so- 
called ‘“‘baptisteries” testify, the most famous being that in 
the Catacomb of St. Pontianus. Here there is a natural 
stream and a cistern, the wall above has a fresco repre- 
senting the baptism of Christ, and a richly jewelled cross. 
It appears that the Sacrament was never administered in a 
church; but, as Justin Martyr says, “in a spot where there 
is water,” and later in a building specially designed for 
the purpose. ' 


Were the Catacombs places of worship? 

The next question which arises is whether the Cata- 
combs were designed for the secret worship of the Chris- 
tians, and whether any parts of them were intended to be 
churches. Their construction, the narrowness of the 
galleries, and the smallness of the cubicula, forbid the 
supposition that the Christians desired secret places to 


234 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


worship in; and it is generally allowed that after the 
persecution of Nero till the time of Decius (250), the 
Christians were seldom molested in the city. Later, in 
the time of the Diocletian trouble, they certainly were in 
danger when they assembled. But from 70 to 250, and 
from 257-303, Christianity in Rome was rarely molested 
except in the case of individuals. In the Catacomb of 
St. Agnes a supposed church was discovered. Elsewhere 
worship seems only to have been possible in the com- 
paratively small cubicula. 

There are Catacombs in Naples and Alexandria, ‘but 
these are not comparable to the Roman. These throw, 
indeed, a light upon early Christianity, the importance of 
which is even yet hardly realised. Even if the number of 
interments has been greatly exaggerated, the church of 
Rome must have been from the first numerous and 
wealthy, and it certainly numbered important members of 
Roman society among its adherents. The religion of 
many of these was less Christian than we are apt to sup- 
pose, and evidently their inscriptions and decoration were 
not invariably sanctioned by the clerical authorities. 
When, for example, they put D.M. on a tomb, whether 
they knew it or not, it was the frankly pagan Dis Mant- 
bus. They celebrate the victories of a famous charioteer 
who won thirty races. They have no hesitation in per- 
petuating, as far as was consistent with a very moderate 
profession of Christianity, the customs of their ancestors. 
Yet there is in general a very cheerful and even trium- 
phant spirit displayed in the inscriptions, which shows 
that those who had accepted Christ as the Lord had won 
the victory over death and the grave. 


CHAPTER XXIV 


THE DAY OF TRIUMPH 


The history of the Church has been traced from the 
first days of its origin at Jerusalem; and the first chapter 
of its history closes, not with the edict of Milan, but when 
Constantine assembled and entertained the bishops of 
Niczea. Then it was that the Church Universal was wel- 
comed by its former enemy as his indispensable ally. 
How great the triumph was must be considered. 


Unpromising beginning of Christianity (a) among Jews 

No religion could have begun under more unpromising 
conditions than did Christianity when it originated in a 
nation, which was about to bring ruin upon itself by its 
mad revolts against Rome. The Founder had proclaimed 
Himself to be the Messiah, and had disappointed all 
Jewish expectations in regard to the looked-for deliverer. 
He had died a death on which the Law had pronounced a 
curse. If He had really risen from the dead, only His 
followers had seen Him. That He should be accepted by 
the Jews as their leader could hardly be expected. 


(6) Among Gentiles 

On the other hand, the new religion must have appeared 
to Gentiles as a species of bastard Judaism, without the 
prestige of antiquity on which the Jews laid so much 
stress. The miracles of Christ were not of a kind to 
appeal to them, and seemed to compare unfavourably with 
those of other sages. The religion was presented in a 

235 


236 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


simple form without the attraction of philosophy. Magic 
and astrology, which had a great fascination for the age, 
were discouraged. The New Testament literature did not 
greatly commend itself; it was devoid of artistic merit, 
and the language was mostly that of the common people. 
There were many new, or comparatively new, religions 
which were equally likely to attract votaries. That a 
faith with so many disadvantages should succeed was 
rendered more improbable because of the unsociable 
reputation of the Christians. Everywhere they had the 


character of being bad citizens, of hating the human race, 


in other words, the existing order of society. 


Difficulties overcome by Christianity 

When these drawbacks are considered, the success of 
Christianity is truly amazing, and one’s astonishment 
grows as one traces the successive stages of its triumphs. 
It had successively to overcome: (1) The danger of disso- 
lution when it broke with Judaism; (2) the loss of pres- 
tige when it renounced Gnosticism; (3) the enmity of the 
people; (4) the contempt of the intellectual classes; 
(5) the suspicion of the Roman authorities; (6) a deter- 
mined attempt to destroy it, by emperors whose great 
exploits had saved the Roman state. 


Disruption 

As has been repeatedly pointed out, Christianity was 
at first, not only Jewish, but narrowly so, and but for the 
work of Peter and Paul it would, as far as can be judged, 
have perished with all the Jewish sects: Essenes, Thera- 
peute, Zealots, Sadducees, even the followers of the 
Baptist, none of which survived the fall of Jerusalem. 
It cannot be stated positively, but it is at least probable 
that by the Neronian persecution the Gentile Christians 
were in the majority. By the close of the first century it 





eee ee eS 


THE DAY OF TRIUMPH 237 


was hardly possible to be a Jew and a Christian. Yet the 
Gentile Church had been so firmly established that it 
could stand alone. This marks the first stage of the tri- 
umph of the new religion. 


Gnosticism 

In a sense Gnosticism was the bid for recognition in 
the Church by the intellectual class. The new religion 
was too simple for educated men, and they demanded a 
philosophy. This the Church almost contemptuously re- 
fused to grant. ‘‘What has philosophy to do with us?” 
said Tertullian. The struggle was protracted, but the 
Church again won the day by declining to consist of two 
elements, a gifted few, and a majority of ignorant believ- 
ers. Gnosticism would have popularised Christianity with 
the cultured class, but robbed it of all virility. The 
strength of the Church was shown by its firmness in com- 
bating the danger, and with the overthrow of Gnosticism 
it was able to advance in triumph. 


Contempt of the cultured class 

Celsus, probably in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, 
taunts the Christians with inviting, not the best but the 
meanest of mankind. The Mysteries invited the pure to 
participate, the Christians, the worst sinners, etc. To the 
very last, even when paganism had become illegal and by 
law only catholic Christians were eligible for public office, 
there was a conspiracy of silence among men of letters to 
ignore the Christians. Claudian, in the fifth century, was 
the panegyrist of Christian emperors, and yet writes as 
though Christianity had no existence whatever. The 
silence of the late classical writers has been used as an 
argument to prove that Christianity never existed and was 
invented later. The real answer of the Church was to 
produce men, from Tertullian to Augustine, who really 
led the thought of the age. 


238 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Suspicion of disloyalty 

The Christians were long believed to have been 
a cause of the ruin of the Empire, especially in the 
West. Their loyalty had been at least lukewarm, and 
their persecutions were due to their refusal to worship 
the emperor. Fac sacrum Cesart, said the magistrate, 
and the reply of the martyr was Non facio. As long 
as this continued the Church and Empire were at war. 
In Constantine, the Empire sued for peace with the 
victorious Church. The result was unexpected, but a 
remark of Professor Gwakin is strictly true: ‘“Constantine 
did what all his predecessors failed in doing. He made 
Christians worship the Emperor.” 


Victory over declared hostility 

The Church in the Diocletian persecution had been 
for eight years striving with the Empire in the eye of all 
the world; this added to the completeness of its victory. 
It must not be forgotten that such emperors as Diocletian 
and Galerius had saved the state, one by his political and 
the other by his military successes. 


Rapid triumph of Christianity over the old ideas 

The next thing to be considered is, What did this 
triumph mean? First, it signified the ruin of paganism in 
the entire Mediterranean world. From the day of the 
Edict of Milan its doom was sealed. Not only the 
religion, but the ideas connected with paganism, had re- 
ceived sentence of death. To most people nothing seemed 
changed; all went on as before. Yet the old world was 
stricken never to revive. The religion was only a part— 
the art, the literature, the philosophy, the mode of life, 
‘were all sentenced to be destroyed. The life was gone 
out of them. There were survivals which persisted, but 
they were nothing but survivals; and if any lived, it was 


THE DAY OF TRIUMPH 239 


disguised under a form of Christianity. The ancient reli- 
gion was not disendowed or even disestablished by Con- 
stantine, nevertheless it had no power to revive. Its fall 
came with astonishing rapidity. Constantine, the son of 
Constantine (337-361), ordered the sacrifices to cease. 
Julian’s attempt to revive paganism was an utter fail- 
ure; when he died in 363, a professed Christian, Jovian, 
was chosen as emperor. Gratian, his son (375), refused 
to be Pontifex Maximus. Under Theodosius I (379-395) 
the priesthood was disendowed, and the Temple of 
Serapis at Alexandria torn down. Paganism was now 
illegal; catholic Christianity had become the religion of 
the Roman world. Things had indeed moved rapidly, 
when Constantine only dare own himself a Christian on 
his deathbed in 337; yet in fifty years a pagan emperor 
had become unthinkable. The philosophers went the 
same way as the worshippers of the gods of antiquity. 
They held their schools, they disputed, they trained 
orators, but chiefly for Christian pulpits. They and their 
systems were doomed and faded. | 


Moral improvement 

From the days of Constantine the imperial court was 
greatly purified. That there were virtuous emperors be- 
fore is certain. Probably no Christian emperor was as 
good a man as Marcus Aurelius; but in the eleven centu- 
ries of Christian Byzantine history it is hard to recall a 
monster of iniquity comparable to some of the Cesars of 
pagan Rome. Whether true or not, stories of unmention- 
able depravity are related of Tiberius in his late years, 
Caligula, Nero, Commodus, and others. Rumour never 
taxed any Christian emperor with such crimes. Even the 
secret history or Anecdotes of Procopius, which makes out 
Theodora as an utter profligate as an actress, does not 
suggest that the empress disgraced Justinian as his wife, 


240 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


on the contrary she seems to have been charitable, too 
interested in ecclesiastical questions, and in the most 
critical event in her husband’s reign, the Nika sedition, 
her courage saved his throne. Down to the day when the 
last of the Byzantine Cesars fell defending the city 
against the Turks (1453) the emperor, in fact, with the 
patriarch, represented Christianity and orthodoxy. Bad, 
cruel, and immoral emperors there undoubtedly were, but 
none who set the laws of God and man at defiance. A 
Michael the Drunkard was only mildly wicked compared 
with Commodus or Heliogabalus. Even if the stories of 
such emperors are grossly exaggerated, the very fact that 
they were current shows the appalling state of heathen 
morals. The absurd etiquette of the Byzantine Court had 
at least the merit of preventing the wild excesses of ancient 
Rome. 


The emperor claims to be the guardian of the Church 
Another effect of the triumphant way in which Chris- 
tianity won the respect and recognition of the Roman 
government was what is called Cesaro-papalism. The 
emperor became the head of the Christian religion. The 
majority of the bishops heartily supported him in his — 
claim. This had its good and its evil side. It made — 
everyone who differed from the Church an enemy of the © 
State, and it was detrimental to the morals of many of — 
the clergy in that it tempted them to become tools of the — 
government. Nor was it only the emperors who claimed © 
this authority. Every king, prince, or potentate, asserted — 
this imperial privilege. The climax came in the days of — 
the Reformation, when the rulers of Europe laid down 
the principle Cuius regio, eius religio, in other words, that — 
they had the right to prescribe what religion their sub- | 
jects should follow. 





THE DAY OF TRIUMPH 241 


High hopes at first 

It must have seemed to the Christians of the early part 
of the fourth century that heaven had come to earth. 
When Constantine had made himself master of the entire 
Empire, and had assembled the bishops to meet at Nica, 
Eusebius cannot contain his delight. The emperor as- 
sembled the very men whom the government had per- 
secuted, and feasted them in his own palace. Many 
of these bore the marks of injuries inflicted in the persecu- 
tion. To see these men honoured as guests of the emperor 
seemed to the bishop incredible. “One might have 
thought,” he says, “that a picture of Christ’s Kingdom 
was thus shadowed forth, and a dream rather than a 
reality.” 

But the painful experience of centuries has shown that 
the Kingdom of Christ has not yet come, and even forces 
us to enquire whether the Church had gained or not by its 
triumph over the world. 


Favours bestowed on the Church 

Favours were showered upon it by Constantine. The 
clergy might receive gifts and legacies freely. Laws were 
enacted to increase their privileges. They were relieved 
of the most burthensome office, that of ‘“Decurion,” the 
possession of which meant inevitable ruin, as it entailed 
responsibility for all the taxes of a district. But this 
caused such a multitude to crowd the priesthood, that only 
those who were not sufficiently wealthy to be eligible 
might be ordained. In this way the Church lost the 
help of many of the educated classes as clergy. Churches 
everywhere arose, and slaves might be manumitted in 
them. Severe laws were proclaimed regulating morals, 
and some of the most cruel punishments were abolished 
under Christian influences. In Constantinople the first 
Christian city was soon to arise. 


242 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Powers bestowed on the bishops 

The Christians received the right of managing the 
affairs of the Church and of legislating for its welfare. 
Their councils became part of the organisation of the 
Empire. Constantine tried to realise the nineteenth cen- 
tury ideal of “a free Church in a free State.”’ He never 
interfered in matters of faith; but gave the bishops liberty 
to decide. But when they had come to a conclusion, the 
emperor enforced it. Thus troops were sent to Africa to 
quell the Donatists, and the prominent Arians were 
banished, as later was Athanasius himself. ‘Thus the 
principle of persecution was introduced, and also the 
Church was taught to look to the State to punish those 
who questioned its authority. By being recognised the 
clergy became more and more a definite order of society, 
and more and more separated from the laity. The 
gradual disappearance of the old right of the people to 
choose their spiritual rulers, till the selection was vested 
in some eminent clergy or in the civil ruler, began with the 
Peace of the Church. 


Character of Christianity changed 

The fact that the Church was in close alliance with the 
State tended to change the whole character of Christianity, 
which became daily more and more of a privileged reli- 
gion. Instead of being a bar to magistracies and impor- 
tant positions, it often became the sole avenue to places of 
emolument. Many began to embrace the Faith with a 
view to personal advantages, and a perfect wave of hy- 
pocrisy was endangering the Church. But on the other 
hand, to many the world seemed more its enemy than 
ever when the Church was in no danger of persecution; 
--and the finer spirits revolted against the comfortable reli- 
gion which Christianity had become. The result was a 
rush into world renunciation, which found its expression 


THE DAY OF TRIUMPH 243 


in monasticism. The best Christianity became ascetic, 
and the monk the real director of the Church for centuries. 
Men sought in the desert for solitude and discipline, now 
that they were denied the glory of martyrdom. 


Could Christianity rule the world? 

The Church had entered upon a new era. It had been 
called upon to prove whether Christianity was capable of 
ruling the world. The policy of Diocletian and Constan- 
tine had galvanised the Roman empire into a fresh mani- 
festation of life, and had given it a century more of world 
governance. But in truth the Empire called upon the 
Church in a time of desperation. It was destined, by the 
powerful aid of the Faith, to revive in Constantinople, and 
to survive in Rome in a changed form, but by the reign of 
Constantine it was practically dead at its extremities. 
Within a century of his death Britain, Gaul, Spain, and 
Africa, had virtually ceased to be; within two centuries 
the West was practically lost; within three Egypt, Syria, 
and the East were under a very different master, with 
another religion carrying all before it. For society was, 
from various causes, rotten to the core; and there was a 
lack of vitality manifested in government, in art, and in 
literature. 


Revival of Church in time of Constantine 

The work of the Church was really not to save the 
empire, but to conserve what was good in itself, and what 
it was able to assimilate in the world order. All the 
vitality of mankind seemed concentrated in the Church. 
Yet it is a remarkable fact that there was a marked lack 
of great men even among the Christians at the close of the 
first period of their history; and it may seem a paradox, 
but is nevertheless true, that when the Diocletian perse- 
cution began the Church was almost as decadent as the 


244 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Empire itself. It was the generation after Nicza which ~ 
produced another series of Christian leaders comparable 
to Origen, Cyprian, and Dionysius of Alexandria. In 
other words, the Church began to rise to its opportunity 
not at the time of the Edict of Milan, or even the Council — 
of Nicza, but when Christians realised what was actually 
meant by the alliance of Church and Empire. 





CHAPTER XXV 
THE EXTENT OF THE CHURCH 


What was the extent of the Church by 323? 

The Council of Nica was ecumenical in that it repre- 
sented not a local, nor national, nor even an imperial 
Church, but one spread abroad throughout the world. 
Persia and the Goths were said to have been represented 
by bishops, as well as all parts of the Roman world. 
Practically it was a gathering of Orientals, but in theory 
the whole Church sent its bishops to decide the burning 
controversies of the day. The question we have to answer 
is what was the extent of the Christian world at this par- 
ticular period, z.e., the opening of the Council of Nica? 
This can best be done by tracing its advance from the 
earliest times in those places which were the great centres 
of expansion. 


Jerusalem and Palestine 

One therefore starts from Jerusalem. When the Church 
there was dispersed, it fled, in accordance with the Lord’s 
command, to Pella. Jewish Christian communities, Ebi- 
onites, Nazarenes, etc., established themselves east of the 
Jordan. Justin, a native of Samaria, Eusebius, who as 
bishop of Cesarea, knew the country, and Jerome, who 
spent years in Palestine, have very little to tell us of them. 
When Hadrian destroyed Jerusalem the very name was 
partly forgotten by the inhabitants, and the Christian 
bishop, henceforward a Gentile, was known as bishop of 
Aelia. It does not appear that the community was a 

245 


246 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


flourishing one; nevertheless it is evident that in Chris- 


tian circles the bishop enjoyed high consideration because 


he presided over the mother church. The bishop of 
Cesarea, Stratonis, was recognised as the head of the 
Church in Palestine, but Christianity was very weak 
there, existing chiefly in the Greek cities. In Galilee the 
Jews were so numerous that in the days of Constantine 
there was not a church in any of its chief towns, where 
there were neither Greeks, Samaritans, nor Christians. 
Throughout Palestine the Jewish population was very 
strong; and in places the Christians were kept out till 
almost the fifth century. 


Damascus 

A dated inscription in Greek (A.D. 318) shows there was 
a “Synagogue” of the Marcionites near Damascus, thus 
proving the presence of some sort of Christianity; but 
the native believers were evidently few. ‘There is little, 
if any, Christian literature in Palestinian or western 
Syria. Antioch, with its apostolic tradition, its impor- 
tance as the capital of the East and the third city of the 
Empire, was from the earliest times a centre of Chris- 
tianity; but in the list of bishops there are but two Syrian 
names. Its famous school of theology was wholly Greek. 


The East 

Eastward was a Christianity, oriental both in character 
and language, with its headquarters at Edessa. Even if 
we reject the legend of Abgar’s correspondence with 
Christ, it is evident that Edessa was more or less Chris- 
tian by the middle of the second century. The city is 
famous for its two eminent, and not very dangerous, 
heretics, Tatian and Bardesanes. It became a centre of 
Christian missions: for it issued Tatian’s Dzatessaron 
and the earliest Syriac version of the New Testament. 


THE EXTENT OF THE CHURCH 247 


Persia 

There was a Persian bishop at Nicza, and the early 
existence of the Persian church is proved alike by the 
rise of the Manichean heresy and of the great persecution 
of Christians in the fourth century. It must not be for- 
gotten that when the Parthian monarchy was overthrown, 
the Persians restored not only their authority but their 
ancient religion, and Zoroastrianism was ruled by a 
powerful and dogmatic priesthood. Here the Christians 
endured a persecution far more fanatical than at the 
hands of the Romans; and they suffered the more, because 
their religion was regarded as belonging to the rival 
empire. Of the remoter East, the India converted by St. 
Thomas, too little is known to include it in the present 
survey. 


Armenia 

Outside the Empire, between the Black and Caspian 
Seas, was the first nation which definitely adopted the 
faith of Christ. These were the Armenians, a race akin 
to the Persians with a religion based on that of the Magi, 
but on its more barbarous side showing Scythian and other 
influences. At the beginning of the fourth century their 
King Tiridates III with his people, by the advice of his 
kinsman Gregory, the Illuminator, accepted Christianity 
as the national religion, and for that reason were attacked 
by Maximin Daza, the heathen emperor, who was the 
rival of Licinius. Gregory, the Illuminator, had been 
brought up and accepted the Faith in Cappadocia. In 
early days Syriac was the ecclesiastical language of 
Armenia. 


Asia Minor 
Undoubtedly the most Christian country before the 
Peace of the Church was Asia Minor. From the first it 


248 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


was the scene of apostolic labours. ‘Thither Barnabas 
and Saul went on their first missionary journey. It was 
the scene of the labours of St. Paul; the Asiatic Provinces 
are prominent in the list in Acts ii, and are addressed in 
I Peter; Hierapolis was the home of Philip and his 
daughters; from Ephesus came the Fourth Gospel. Pliny 
testifies to the widespread influence of the Faith in 
Bithynia. The seven cities of Asia in the Apocalypse 
naturally occur to us. But it is unnecessary to say more. 
Inscriptions, acts of martyrs, all the available sources bear 
testimony to the extraordinary spread of Christianity in 
the whole country. Harnack thinks that, by the time of 
Constantine, at least half the population was Christian, 
and many parts were entirely so. Nor must it be for- 
gotten that for many centuries it was the most important 
part of the Eastern Empire, as well as the home of the 
Christian teachers who shaped the destiny of the Church 
of the fourth and fifth centuries. 


Egypt 

Egypt was the original home of monasticism, Jewish and 
Christian, and Alexandria the centre of Christian learn- 
ing. Yet of the origin of the Church, which exercised so 
much influence on Christianity, we know scarcely any- 
thing till about a.p. 189, when Demetrius became bishop. 
Hitherto the Christians seem to have been under the 
Alexandrian bishop and his twelve presbyters, but 
Demetrius organised a diocesan episcopate with a bishop 
for each nome, the towns being in the charge of a pres- 
byter. All were under the authority of the metropolitan 
see of Alexandria, which administered the country with 
patriarchal or papal authority. The widespread influence 
_of the Faith is shown by the existence of the Coptic ver- 
sions of the Scripture in the different dialects. St. 
Anthony’s impulse to monasticism was due to his hearing 


THE EXTENT OF THE CHURCH 249 


the Gospel precept ‘‘Go, sell all thou hast, etc.,” read in 
Church in his native language. The Christians already 
outnumbered the Jews in Egypt. 


Cyrene 

Cyrene and the Pentapolis, which lay west of Egypt, is 
mentioned in the New Testament, and was full of Jews; 
little is known of Christianity there till we reach the 
third century, and learn that Sabellius, a native, and his 
doctrine, were popular there. Dionysius as bishop of 
Alexandria writes to the metropolitan Basilides (bishop 
of the districts of the Pentapolis), about the Lenten fast. 


Gregory Thaumaturgus 

From the Syrian school of Origen, after he had been 
expelled from Alexandria by Demetrius, came one of the 
greatest Christian missionaries in Gregory Thaumaturgus, 
who went to Neo-Czsarea in Pontus and found seventeen 
Christians, and left at his death seventeen pagans in the 
city. An oration by Gregory of Nyssa, in the fourth cen- 
tury, describes his method. He would not deprive the 
people of their pleasures or their religious solemnities, 
but converted them into something Christian. ‘‘For in- 
stead of Pandia, Diasia, Dionysia, and the rest of your 
festivals, the feasts of Peter, Paul, Thomas, Sergius, 
Marcellus, Leontius, Panteelomon, Antoninus, Mauricius, 
and the other martyrs are celebrated, but decently and in 
order.” 


Carthage and the African Church 

Following the coast of Africa westward we reach a most 
important centre of Christianity in Carthage. Here, as 
at Alexandria, a church suddenly appears in full vigour, 
without even a legend like Alexandria’s of being founded 
by St. Mark. Tertullian implies that it was founded from 
Rome. It may have been Greek-speaking originally, as 
the martyr Perpetua conversed with a presbyter in that 


250 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


language. That Tertullian wrote Greek treatises does not 
seem to prove anything in so erudite a man. But Car- 
thaginian Christianity was emphatically Latin, and its 
vocabulary is full of legal and military terms. The prog- 
ress of Christianity westward along the sea is marked by 
the records of the martyrs. We hear of them in the prov- 
inces adjacent to Africa, Numidia, Byzacum, and 
Mauretania. But the remarkable thing is the number of 
bishops attending the African councils even before 
Cyprian’s accession in 248. It seems that the African 
churches, in contrast with the Egyptians, had each its own 
bishop. Of detached parish priests we hear nothing, 
The names of the African Christians are almost entirely 
Latin or Greek; but among the martyrs we meet with 
Punic names, such as Namphamo, the first sufferer, and 
a woman named Miggin. 


Rome 

Passing over to Italy we find that the church of Rome 
in the middle of the third century supported a bishop, 
forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, seven subdeacons, 
forty-two acolytes, fifty-two exorcists, readers and door- 
keepers, and more than fifteen hundred widows and 
afflicted. This implies a very large community, and is 
confirmed by the amount of those buried in the Cata- 
combs which are reckoned by millions. To arrive at even 
a rough estimate is well-nigh impossible. Harnack sup- 
poses that at this time there were 30,000, considering 
this below the mark. A rapid increase, he believes, took 
place later between 250 and 312. Of the size, wealth, and 
influence of the Roman church being considerable from 
an early date, there can be no question. In southern Italy 
.. churches were evidently numerous; but north of Rome, 
till the fourth century, there must have been but a few 
of them. 


’ —— ee 


THE EXTENT OF THE CHURCH 251 


Greece 

Paul’s labours in Macedonia and Achza seem to have 
had little permanent fruit, as it is surprising how little is 
known of the churches in the Balkan peninsula. The 
church of Corinth is a partial exception, owing to the dis- 
sension which evoked the epistle of the Roman church 
(I Clement), and to the eminence of its bishop, Dionysius, 
about 171. From his letter to Soter of Rome it would 
appear that the Romans sent the poorer churches liberal 
contributions. It is remarkable how small a part Greece 
proper played in early ecclesiastical history, or for that 
matter in any department of the life of the Empire. It 
was then the home of very few Greek writers. Plutarch is 
an exception. There are many Christian inscriptions 
along the coast of the Adriatic in Dalmatia. 


Gaul : 

How Christianity spread in Gaul before the middle of 
the third century is not known. There are various legends 
of a late date of apostolic missions to the country; but 
there is no definite information before the persecution of 
Lyons and Vienne. The letter, written by the afflicted 
church to the churches of Phrygia and Asia, is in Greek, 
and the community was evidently one of foreigners who 
had settled in Lyons as traders, as the next bishop after 
the persecution was Ireneus, himself an Asiatic and a 
disciple of Polycarp. He tells us that approaches were 
made to the Celtic inhabitants and that he used to address 
them in their own language, and for that reason his 
Greek is faulty. Evidently Asiatic Greeks brought 
Christianity up the Rhone, and also along the coast to 
the Greek cities like Marseilles. The acts of the Synod 
of Arles (314) are our chief authority for bishoprics in 
Gaul before Nicea. The fact that Constantine Chlorus 
is praised for not destroying the church buildings in Gaul 


252 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


during the persecution is a proof of their existence; and 
his son Constantine must have learned something of 
Christianity in that country before he decided upon a 
policy of toleration. 


Spain 

Spanish Christianity is obscure till the beginning of 
the fourth century, despite the fact that Spain was the 
goal of Paul’s missionary enterprise which, according to 
Clement, he probably reached. No single Christian of 
any importance appears in Spain till Hosius of Cordova, 
the western bishop who had so much influence with 
Constantine. But the Council of Elvira (circa 303), 
whose acts have survived, throws light on the extent of 
the Church. It appears that all the provinces were repre- 
sented by their bishops or by inferior clergy. It shows 
that the Church was diffused over the peninsula. The 
canons are remarkable for the severity of the penalties; 
and the offences specified disclose a very lax morality on 
the part of both clergy and people. Evidently many 
Christians had little scruple about complying with pagan 
customs or Judaising. 


Britain 

Britain had been for centuries a province of Rome, and 
it was the scene of several attempts to seize the supreme 
power. At the same time it was never thoroughly Roman- 
ised, and was the home of officials rather than resident 
citizens of the Empire. The only records of the presence 
of Christianity are the alleged martyrdom of St. Alban 
and the presence of three British bishops at the Council 
_of Arles. The papal legend quoted by Bede is that the 
King Lucius sent for missionaries from Pope Eleutherus 
(circa 180-190), but this is very suspicious, especially 
when we find a claim made by the Roman bishops that 





THE EXTENT OF THE CHURCH 253 


all the countries of the West had been evangelised by 
them. In fact, both in Britain and Northern Gaul, the 
arrival of the Gospel message appears to have been late. 


Churches unevenly distributed 

After this survey it seems evident that the churches 
were very unevenly distributed. Here and there was a 
dense Christian population, and elsewhere it was very 
small. The Church was especially strong in the cities, 
and more so in the largest and wealthiest. The most 
varied estimates have been made of the proportion of 
Christians to the rest of the inhabitants of the Empire. 
In the time of Decius, Gibbon thinks one in twenty. 
Friedlander, according to Harnack, thinks it was not 
much more in the time of Constantine, though it is Har- 
nack’s opinion that the real age of Christian expansion 
was after Decius (250). It has been even conjectured 
that by Constantine’s day half of the Romans were Chris- 
tians. There were far more in the East than in the West. 


Christian population 

Harnack arranges the Christian population in order of 
density thus: 

Practically Christian—(1) All Asia Minor in the mod- 
ern sense. (2) Thrace opposite Bithynia. (3) Armenia. 
(4) Edessa. 

Christianity strong—(1) Antioch and Coele Syria. 
(2) Cyprus. (3) Egypt and the Thebaid. (4) Rome. 
(5) Africa. (6) Spain. (7) Possibly the coasts of Achaia. 
South coast of Gaul. 

Christianity weak—(1) Palestine. (2) Inland Phoe- 
nicia. (3) Arabia. (4) Parts of Mesopotamia. (5) 
Balkans (interior). (7) Northern Italy. (8) Maure- 
tania and Tripolitana. 

One thing is evident: if the lowest estimate of the 


254 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


numbers of the Christians be taken, it was hopeless on 
the part of Decius, Valerian, and the Diocletian emperors 
to suppress them. Their only possible means of doing 
so would have been by modern oriental methods of 
wholesale massacres, which the Romans were too civilised 
to adopt, and the Christians too wise to encourage by 
open rebellion. 





INDEX 


Abgar of Edessa 
letter not anti-Jewish, 23 
Acts apocryphal 
of Andrew, 90 
of Peter, 91 
of Philip, 92 
of Thomas, 93 
of Paul and Thecla, 94 
Adoptionism 
the human Jesus chosen by 
God, 186 
Aeons 
Gnostic, 71 
Africanus 
Chronicle of, 207 
Akiba 
Martyr of Judaism, 23 
Alexandria 
school of, 85 
as an intellectual centre, 98 
founded by Ptolemy Soter, 
130 
home of Neoplatonism, 142 
Allegorism 
Jewish, 69 
Alogoi 
deniers of the doctrine of 
the Logos, 187 
Ammonius Saccas 
teacher of Plotinus, 143 
Ancestral religions 
tolerated by Roman law, 
108 
Anicetus, Pope 
receives Polycarp, 156 
Antioch 
Greeks evangelised, 30 
Antithesis 
book by Marcion, 76 


Apocalypses—Jewish 
preserved by church, 25 
Apocalypse (Revelation) 
prayers in, 168 
Dionysius of Alexandria on 
authorship, 201 
Apocryphal Literature 
poor as literature, 88 
Gospels, 9o 
Acts, 90 
Apologies 
why interesting, 16 
defects and value of, 146 
Apostasy 
gravest sin, 42 
Apostles—spurious Acts of 
desire for miracles, 17 
Apostolic Constitutions 
Gentile morality, 36 
worship in, 169 
a church described, 170 
Aristides 
apology of, 149 
Armenia 
conversion of, 247 
Arnobius 
last ante 
203 
Astrology 
popularity of, 133 
Athenagoras 
as a literary Christian, 196 
Augustus 
religious revival under, 139 


Nicene writer, 


Bacchus, worship of 
suppressed in Rome, 112 
Baptism 
change of nature in, 36, 39 


255 


256 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Baptism (continued) 
not repeated, 46 
recognised in all Gnosticism, 
65 
preparation for, IoI 
in Roman “Order” 103 
bishops preside at, 156 
in Justin Martyr, 168 
Barcochba 
revolt of, 22 
Barnabas, Epistle of 
the two ways, 4I 
Bishop 
as a judge, 44 
heresy watched by, 46 
preserve tradition, 80 
in primitive Church, 155 
appointment of, 159 
relation to presbyter, 159 
Britain 
Christianity in, 252 


Caecilian 
disputed election at Car- 
thage, 182 


Callistus, Bishop of Rome 
his history, 160 
dispute with Hippolytus, 
180 
Canon of the Mass 
the eucharistic prayer, 171 
Canon of the New Testament 
in Eusebius Church History, 
210 
Carthage 
Latin Christianity strong in, 
249 
Catacombs 
inscriptions in, 17 
evidence for Gentile Chris- 
tianity, 35 
description of, 225 
Catechumens 
carefully prepared, 47 
instruction of, 102 


Catholic Epistles 
moral treatises, 100 
Celsus 
His attack on Christianity, 
I4I 
the “True Account,” 152 
Christianity 
Greek, 29 
Christology 
doctrine of Christ, 52 
development of, 54 
Church 
as an institution, II 
Catholic, 11 
conserves tradition, 13 
organising power of, 14 
successor of Dispersion, 28 
becomes anti-Jewish, 34 
success with Gentiles, 35 
social advantages, 41 
expulsion from, 42 
an army, 41 
membership a crime, 107 
property protected, 107 
secret society, 114 
causes of triumph, 135 
educated men in, 195 
under Constantine, 220 
extent of, 245 
Clement of Alexandria 
opposes Gnosticism, 61 
the Christian Gnostic, 85 
the Paedogogus and Stro- 
matris, 86 
educational scheme, 104 
wide learning of, 196 
Eusebius Church History, 
208 
Clement of Rome 
Clementine Recognition, 91 
first epistle of, 121, 157 
liturgical prayer in epistle, 
168 
Comparative religion 
studied in antiquity, 60 


INDEX 


Constantinople 
first Christian city, 242 
Confessors 
sufferers but not to the 
death, 1rg 
Constantine, Emperor 
early career of, 217 
Corinth 
worship at, 32, 167 
church not episcopal in St. 
Paul’s day, 157 
Corinthians 
First Epistle to, 31 
Cornelius—Centurion 
conversion of, 29 
Cornelius—Pope 
dispute with Novatian, 181 
Creeds 
known only to baptised, 47 
Cross 
superscription: Hebrew, 
Greek, Latin, 127 
Cyprian of Carthage 
bishops as high priests, 46 
episcopate of, 162 
Cybele 
Image of, 
128 
Cyril of Jerusalem 
catechetical lecturer, 105 


sent to Rome, 


Deacons 
special assistants of bishops, 
160 
deaconesses, 160 
Decius 
persecution under, 162 
Diocletian 
his schemes for restoring the 
empire, 216 
persecution of, 217 
Dionysius of Alexandria 
on Novatian schism, 181 
controversy with Dionysius 
of Rome, IgI1 
as a liberal critic, 199 


257 


Discipline 
need of, 39 
Divorce 
Jesus on, 40 
Docetism 
Gnostic doctrine dangerous, 
184 
Donatism 
schism in Africa, 182 


Edessa 
stronghold of Syriac Chris- 
tianity, 246 
Education 
Roman, 98 
Greek, 99 
Jewish, 99 
Christian, 100 
Egypt 
original home of Christian 
monasticism, 248 
Egyptian religion 
state of the dead, 132 
Emperor 
worship of Rome and Cesar, 
135 
claims guardianship of 
Church, 240 
Empire—Roman 
seeks aid of Church, 13 
duty to obey, 40 
decay of, in 3d century and 
revival, 215 
Epicurus 
his system, 137 
Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis 
collects heresies, 62 
gives the name to the Alogoi, 
187 
Eschatology 
Jewish, 34 
Ethics 
manuals of, in NT., 41 
Eusebius, Bishop of Czsarea 
his career and character, 
205 


258 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Fast days 
Wednesday and Friday ob- 
served, 173 
Fate 
salvation from, 54 
Fathers 
disappointing, 16 
Festivals (Christian) 
observed as rest days, 173 
Free Will 
upheld by early Church, 56 
Funeral rites 
pagan Roman, 226 
Future life 
in ancient world, 132 


Galerius 
persecuting emperor, 219 
Gaul 
foundation of Church in, 251 
Gentiles 
Christian ceremonies, 15 
circumcision of, 33 
desire a “Lord,” 35 
Gibbon, “Decline and Fall of 
Roman Empire” 
accuses Eusebius of par- 
tiality, 113 
Gratian, emperor 
refuses to be called Pontifex 
Maximus, 239 
Gnosis and Gnostics 
meaning of, 59 
types of, 59 
literature, 62 
not acceptable, 66 
causes of failure, 78, 237 
God 
Gentile view of, 50 
Jews and His unity, 52 
in Clement of Alexandria, 
86 
unity of, desired by heathen, 
129 
Gospels 
portraiture of Jesus in, 18 


Gospels (continued) 
Apocryphal, 89 

Greeks 
contribution to Christianity, 


29 
Gregory Thaumaturgus 
description of Origens meth- 
ods, 104 
success as a missionary, 249 


Heaven and Hell 
as portrayed in uncanonical 
books, 57 
Hebrews, Epistle to 
origin and authorship, 199 
Hegesippus 
quoted by Eusebius, 209 
Helen of Tyre 
Simon Magus’ companion, 
3 
Hellenistic literature 
Jewish—preserved by Chris- 
tians, 25 
Heracleon—Gnostic 
commentary on St. 
62 
Hermas, Shepherd of 
one penance only, 44 
romance of, 88 
Heresy 
Bishops guard against, 46 
contrasted with schism, 175 
Hierarchy 
Christians adopt Jewish, 24, 
8 


John, 


2 

Hippolytus, Bishop 

opposes Gnosticism, 61 

on Simon Magus, 64 

and Callistus, 160, 180 

his learning, 200 
Holy Spirit 

in Old and New Testament, 


57 
as Mother of Jesus, 58 
Hours of Prayer 
Jewish observed, 167, 175 


INDEX 


Ignatius of Antioch 
Anti-Judaic, 24 
Anti-gnostic, 78 
letters on way to martyrdom, 

I2I 

Irenzus, bishop of Lyons 
opposes gnosticism, 61 
refutes Valentinus, 73 
stress on tradition, 80 
in four gospels, 82 
on Eucharist, 82 

Intellectuality 
superior Christian, 154 

Isis 
worship of, 130 


James, Apostle, son of Zebedee 
execution by Herod Agrippa, 
109 
James—the Lord’s brother 
ascetic, 21 
Gnostic party of, 68 
Jamnia 
Jewish school of, 21 
Jerusalem 
Apostolic council, 30 
called Aelia, 245 
Jesus Christ 
a Jewish teacher, 20 
always considered divine, 49 
few allusions to ministry, 


50 
truly born and suffered, 184 
purely human being not de- 

sired, 185 

Johanan ben Zacchai 

escapes from Jerusalem, 22 
John, Apostle 

Gnostic representatives of, 

68 
Gospel of, 70 

Josephus Flavius 
works preserves by Church, 

25 
called an Ebionite Christian, 

26 


259 


Judaic 
meaning of word, 20 
Judaism 
regarded as heresy, 24 
self-centred, 26 
Talmudic, 27 
Justin Martyr 
dispute with Trypho, 23, 
149 
his education, 99 
acts of martyrdom, 123 
apologies, 148 
Christian worship in Apol- 
ogy, 168 
Jews 
early relation with Chris- 
tians, 22 
messianic hopes of, 34 


Lactantius 
learning and style of, 203 
Laity | 
people of God, 157 
Lapsed Christians 
In Decian persecution, 163 
Lawyers 
attracted to Christianity, 15 
as apologists, 150 
Licinius, emperor 
defeated by Constantine, 223 
Life under Empire 
monotonous, II9 
Logos 
doctrine of, 50 
Jesus identified with, 54 
Lord’s Supper 
a mystical union, 35 
recognised in Gnosticism, 65 
service in Acts xx, 167 
in Justin Martyr, 167 
Lucretius 
poem “On the nature of 
things,” 138 
Lyons and Vicune 
persecution at, 114 
spirit of martyrs, 122 


260 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Lyons and Vicune (continued) 
persecution in Eusebius Ch. 
Hist., 211 


Maccabees 
story of, 
Church, 25 
Magic 
belief in, 66 
popularity of, 134 
Marcion 
medern work in, 27 
Pauline Gnostic, 75 
Martyrdom 
psychology of, 17 
Acts of, 18, 120 
unworthy martyrs, 124 
veneration for, 126 
Mary, the Virgin 
reverence for, I3 
birth and marriage, 89 
ever Virgin, 89 
Millenarianism 
division of opinion on, 56 
Military terms 
employed by Christians, 174 
Mithras worship 
worship of, 132 
initiation ceremony in Ter- 
tullian, 202 
Minucius Felix 
apology of, I50 
style of the Octavius, 203 
Monarchians 
ancient contrasted with Uni- 
tarians, 185 
Monasticism 
arose when persecution 
ceased, 126 
Montanism 
account of, 176 


preserved by 


Neo-Platonism 

its origin, 141 
Nero 

persecution of, III 


New Testament 
literary excellence of, 19 
as educational manual, 100 
as an apologetic, 146 
Novelties in religion 
condemned, 14 
Nicodemus 
Gospel of, 90 
Novatianism 
schism of Novatian, 181 
Numenius 
pioneer of Neo-platonic phi- 
losophy, 140 


Octavius, the 
account of, I51 
Ophites 
earliest Christian Gnostics, 
65 
Origen 
sermons on St. John, 61 
education of, 100 
answer to Celsus, 152 
the Hexapla, 198 
Osiris 
guide of the soul, 132 
Ousia 
in Plotinus, 144 


Pamphilus 
martyr friend of Eusebius, 
203 
Patripassians . 
school of monarchians so- 
called, 189 
Paschal Controversy 
Victor intervenes, 176 
Pastoral Epistles 
basis of Canon Law, 41 
prayers in, 167 
Paul, Apostle 
observes the Law, 21 
attitude to Gentiles, 31 
forbids Gentile circumcision, 


33 
opposes Gnostics, 61 


INDEX 


Paul, Apostle (continued) 
Gnostic representatives of, 
68 


misunderstood, 75 
acts of Paul and Thecla, 94 
persecutions of, 109 
Paul of Samosata 
heresy and condemnation, 
192 
Penance 
only one allowed, 44 
Perpetua and her companions 
martyrdom of, 124 
possibly Montanists, 179 
Persecution 
was it a deterrent? 118 
effect on Church, 125 
schisms due to, 125 
under Decius, 162 
Persia 
power as an empire, 132 
Christians in, persecuted, 247 
Personal religion 
desired in Roman world, 130 
Peter, Apostle 
a strict Jew, 21 
Ist Epistle, 31 
in Christian apocrypha, 91 
question to Christ, 118 
Philo 
a Hellenist Jew, 25 
Philosophers 
dress and language adopted, 
15 
regard God as an abstrac- 
tion, 52 
Philosophumena, The 
discovery of, 83 
story of Callistus, 160 
heresy of Callistus, 189 
Pistis Sophia 
Valentinian treatise, 62 
its system, 74 
Philosophy 
Christianity a philosophy, 
137 


261 


Philosophy (continued) 
Christian and neo-platonic 
contrasted, 145 
Plato 
The “Timaeus” of, 60 
Pliny, the Younger 
correspondence with Tra- 
jan, 152 
Plotinus 
neo-platonic philosopher, 143 
Plutarch 
attempt to reconcile ancient 
religion to his age, 140 
Polycarp 
martyrdom of, 121 
visits Rome, 156 


martyrdom, preserved by 
Eusebius, 211 
Polytheism | 
natural in early religion, 52 
Porphyry 


Life of Plotinus, 166 
Praxeas 
monarchian teacher, 189 
“Preparation” and “Demon- 
stration” i 
of the Gospel by Eusebius, 
207 
Presbyters 
form council of the bishop, 
156 
Prophecy 
Christians claim fulfilment, 
148 
Protevangelium 
youth of Jesus, 89 
Purification 
rites of popular, 131 
Pythagoras 
theory of numbers, 142 


Recognitions 
Clementine, 91 
Reformers 
always appeal to the past, 


14 


262 STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHURCH 


Resurrection 
according to Clement Alex 
and Origen, 144 
Roman Empire 
ancient religion of, 127 
Christians loyal to, 147 
Romans, Epistle to 
rejection of Israel, 33 
Rome, Church of 
repository of Apostolic Tra- 
dition, 81 


Sabellius 
Heresy of, 190 
Sacraments 
aspect of salvation in, 56 
Sarapion, bishop of Antioch 
suppresses Gospel of Peter, 
96 
Schism 
contrasted with Heresy, 175 
Seneca 
humanity of his philosophy, 
140 
Serapis 
temple of, at Alexandria, 130 
Sermons 
early prominence of, IOI 
few examples of, 174 
Serpent 
reference for, 65 
Sibylline Oracles 
Jewish, 31 
image of Cybele, 129 
Simon Magus 
first Gnostic, 62 
his “ Great Announcement,” 
63 
in Christian Apocryph, 91 
Sin 
unto death, 43 
Soteriology 
doctrine of Salvation, 52 
Stephen the Protomartyr 
illegally stoned by Jews, 109 


Stoicism 
system of, 139 
Symbolism, Christian 
in the Catacombs, 231 
Synagogue 
meeting place of early Chris- 
tians, 166 


Tacitus 
description of Christians, 
III 
Teaching of the Twelve Apos- 
tles 
Jewish character, 23 
warns against impostors, 41 
prayers in, 167 
Tertullian 
opposes Gnosticism, 61 
against Marcion, 75 
apology of, 151 
‘LO,a wite,173 
as a Montanist, 178 
opposes Praxeas, 189 
learning of, 201 
Thecla 
acts of Paul and Thecla, 94 
Theodotus 
two Monarchians of this 
name, 188 
Theology 
doctrine of God, 52 
Thomas, Apostle 
apocryphal gospel of, 81, 90 
Trajan 
reply to Pliny about Chris- 
tians, 113 
Trinity 
name first used, 13 
doctrine at first vague, 58 
in system of Numenius, 142 
economic, 186 
origin of first controversy 
on, 187 
Tryphaena 
in Acts of Paul and Theela, 


95 





INDEX 


Trypho, the Jew 
Dialogue with Justin, 23 
Two Ways 
“Life and Death,” 41 
virtues and vices catalogued, 
IOI 


Unitarianism 
ancient and modern con- 
trasted, 184 


Valentinus 
Johannine Gnostic, 71 
refuted by Irenzus 
Victor, Pope 
tries to make Polycrates ob- 
serve Roman Easter, 176 


263 


Victor, Pope (continued) 
excommunicates Theodotus, 
188 
Virgil 
religion in, 139 


Women 
part in Church, 18 


Zeno 
founder of Stoicism, 139 
Zephyrinus, Pope 
predecessor of Callistus, 160 
promotes Callistus, 180 
sets Callistus over 
combs, 228 


Cata- 


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